Holden's Path Part IV
by obey2084
Summary: With the upcoming National Pokémon Championship Series taking place under a new format, Holden prepares for an exciting new challenge. But soon, the stress from his newest responsibilities leads to trouble.
1. Chapter 31

**HOLDEN'S PATH**

Written by Obey

DISCLAIMER:

I do not own the rights to Pokémon. This story is for fanfiction purposes only.

INTRODUCTION:

This story takes place during the 6th Generation of Pokémon. At the time I came up with this story, I had played both the X and Y versions of the game, and took a liking to the style, which is why I mostly centered the plot around Lumiose City and the Kalos Region.

This story combines elements from the anime and the game series, where I made decisions, based on my judgment, on how to enhance the experience while striving to demonstrate realistic events from a world where extraordinary things happen.

Popular characters that are absent include Red, Blue, Gary, N, and Giovanni. Ash Ketchum is in the story and his existence created a potential conflict with Red's, and to keep things simple I removed Red. If anything, Holden essentially takes Red's place in the universe of this story. As for Giovanni and N, the drama surrounding their roles in the Pokémon world was inconvenient for the progression of this story, so they do not get mentioned. Another character not mentioned in Tobias, since he used legendary Pokémon in the anime, and I'm avoiding having them in league competition since they're too powerful.

The character ages were a challenge, and I tried to keep them consistent to a certain degree. At the beginning of the story, Holden is 25 years old, while both Ash and Serena are 20. Ash is armed with his Kalos lineup during this story. This means that the story takes place before Serena leaves the group to pursue her dreams.

This story is a representation of the experiences and observations I made during my days competing in Super Smash Brothers. Similar to that, there is a community and culture. There are alliances, leagues, trainers, cocky competitors. There is respect, and lack thereof. It's a unique world and people become part of it due to the constant inspiratational moments to occur, which I attempted to simulate in this story.

PLEASE ENJOY

**PART IV**

"_Even those who become the strongest trainer in the world have to battle to defend their title from the next challengers. You may be climbing for a long time, perhaps even years, but you need to keep climbing. And I'm not just telling you that because it's some cheesy metaphor, I'm saying it because that is what Apex Academy stands for. The apex is the highest point, and many people never even reach it. I want to see you, as well as all my students, keep climbing until you reach the apex."_

-Holden Hoffman, head coach of Apex Academy

CHAPTER 31.

SEVEN MONTHS LATER

Apex Academy was named after the concept of trainers reaching the highest possible level, or the 'apex'. It wasn't just the trainers who were meant to level up: it was the pokémon as well. The journey of the pokémon trainer was never taken alone. Every trainer had their pokémon team who went with them, and the bond built on the back of the shared journey would be what defined the greatest trainers in the game.

Holden Hoffman's bond with his team had finally led to the National Championship…and the successful addition of five more academies to his name as a result.

The reward money from the tournament was substantial, especially for winning first place, and Holden put his winnings toward funding his academies right away. Diantha held true to her word with Holden by changing her vote to uplift the ban over Holden's schools. It had been a great victory for Holden, but he firmly believed he was successful because he was fighting for his school, for it was that motivation which had pushed him to reach his greatest career victory.

Months had passed now, and Holden was finally seeing a checkpoint in the year's hard work. In the last seven months, Holden traveled all over the country, overseeing the purchases and grand openings to new Apex Academy dojos. Today, he was back at his original school in Saffron City. Serena was there with him as well, making her first visit to Apex Academy Saffron. When she walked in the front door, the students cheered loudly and greeted her with nothing but kindness. Of course, Holden received the best response as the students considered him a hero now.

Holden was finally reunited with Turner, Erico, and even Kirk. They ran over and nearly tackled their head coach; eager to show him how proud they were of his accomplishments. Everyone met and spent some time speaking and enjoying the moment, until it was time to get to work. Holden instructed the coaches to gather all the present students on the training mats, and then he wanted the coaches to stand and hear him speak. Serena went and stood next to the coaches as well, which was fitting since Holden credited her with a great deal of positive influence. Once everyone was ready, Holden began to speak. "Apex Academy! I'm back!" He couldn't resist bathing in some cheap applause, and the students gave it to him. He didn't overdo it, though, and kept things moving along. "I'm proud to announce that we now have academies in Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and even Kalos! Of course, here in Saffron City we have the original Apex Academy, and it's not going anywhere." There was tremendous energy in the room as the positivity spread around. Even so, Holden sighed and prepared to address the next subject. "I know there's a lot of good news going around today, but I do have one piece that is going to change things."

The room grew quiet, and Holden took a breath and got to it. "I will no longer be the head coach here at Apex Academy." Gasps and groans of disappointment broke the silence as everyone was hurt by the news. The students had already been worried having Holden away from the school so often. He was more than aware of how they'd take this news, but he had chosen to get it out right away so that he could move things back to a positive direction. "Listen to me, everyone. I'm not going to be the head coach here anymore, but the reason why is because I have a new job to manage. The Apex Academy in Lumiose is part of a large facility, and I've elected to make it the location for Apex Academy Headquarters. I'll be at the head of operations for every school in every region, and I'll run it all from the HQ building."

Though the students remained saddened, they also seemed to understand why this was happening. Holden had always praised the concept of evolution and leveling up, and that meant growing to accept the necessary changes to reach the highest levels. If anything, Holden had always embraced the Apex concept, and this was no exception. Even so, for every change made, more adjustments were required. "I have assigned head coaches to the new gyms, and they've been making great strides out there. As for this location, I have already made the decision on the new head coach…and he's accepted the offer." With that, Holden motioned with his hand and it was Turner who stepped forward with a powerful look of pride on his face. "Turner…_you_ are now the head coach of Apex Academy Saffron City. You've earned it." In his hand, Holden had the key to the building, as a symbol of passing the torch.

Turner smiled and took the key in his hand. "Thank you, Holden. Thank you so much." They shook hands and then raised each other's arms up to more cheers. Not only did the students like Turner a lot, they respected him as well. Erico loved coaching but he had no interest in being the head coach, while Kirk was still new to coaching. Turner was the ideal choice, and he was going to do his absolute best on the job.

Things moved forward and everyone was spending time meeting and talking, since class was canceled for this one day to honor the big announcements. Holden took Serena by her hand and guided her through the building, giving her a special tour. She smiled and looked at everything with great interest, after having Holden tell her so many stories about the school. Putting pictures to go with the stories now was a unique experience. The couple reached Holden's office last, and there were some older pictures on the wall in the back corner of the room. Serena walked over and looked closely at them. "Is that you?"

Holden tried to see which photo she was spying on, and he winced when he saw which one it was. "Unfortunately, yes," he replied, not bringing up that he'd not been responsible for putting the picture up, since apparently his coaches hung additional photos on the wall during his absence.

Serena tried not to laugh, but her resistance made it all the more blatant. "I've never seen you wear a pink shirt before!" she said while giggling relentlessly. "I can't believe it, seeing you like that. And you're so _young_ in this picture."

Holden covered the photo with his hand and placed his arm around Serena's shoulder, urging her away from his embarrassing photo from his past, as he announced, "Slideshow's over." Serena was not through laughing yet, but she ceased in pestering him when he pulled her over to him while he leaned against his desk. This achieved the task of returning silence and they kissed on the lips. He placed his hands against her neck and leg, gently urging her forward, while they kept up with the kissing. Everything was going well for them, and they both were so sure of each other, thus making it difficult to refrain from succumbing to the emotions. Finally, some of the voices outside seemed to grow louder, and Serena backed away with a slightly embarrassed smile. Holden pretended to groan in protest, so Serena playfully kissed his lips one more time before things returned to normal.

"I'm very proud of you, Holden," she said sincerely. "I want you to know that." He smiled and tried to pull her over to him yet again, but she blushed and resisted. "With everything that's been going on, I've had a lot on my mind lately. And so…I was thinking…what if we moved in together?"

Though Serena felt that it was okay to ask the question, Holden's reaction was a fairly different story. Serena was staring right at him when she saw him inhale nervously and try to avert his eyes. Inside, she wished she hadn't seen it, but she knew what she saw was real. This suggestion had been too forward, and she may have lost sight of reality in her moment of bliss. Before Holden could express his thoughts, Serena came forward and held her hands up to stop him. "Forget it, sweetheart. I'm sorry, that's a bit much to ask for." She was smiling at him, but it was burdened underneath.

Holden saw his opening to escape the potential big step forward for their relationship, and he took it. He hugged Serena and tucked her chin against his shoulder. At the very least, he owed her some sort of explanation, so he would try. "One day, Serena. But I have to run the HQ now, and that's going to keep me very busy. I'm just…not ready for that yet." Serena just hugged him tightly and didn't say anything in response, so he felt she'd accepted his excuse. In reality, she felt a sting of disappointment within her, but for now, she could do nothing. Hopefully, things would change as he suggested they would. Perhaps he truly was too busy now, but would soon open up his world just a little bit more to make room for her. Surely, there was a place for her in his life on a deeper level? Inside, she hoped there was.


	2. Chapter 32

CHAPTER 32.

ONE MONTH LATER

With the start of the new year, things were moving along more accordingly. Now that Holden had overseen things in Saffron City, he would be returning back to the Kalos region to his new home in just a few hours. Before he did, however, he had a few things to clear up first.

Holden and Serena walked up to their destination, which was now in front of them: The Saffron City Gym. Inside was Sabrina, the gym leader notorious for despising Holden. As soon as he saw the familiar establishment, Holden turned around, as if he was ready to retreat. Fortunately, Serena took his arm and held him in place. "No way, Holden. It's time you made amends with her. She's inside, and it will only take a few minutes."

"She'll attack me with her psychic powers," Holden insisted. "She's got mental problems. I don't want to be in there with her."

Serena thought about how silly that sounded, but she recalled that Sabrina was versed in telekinesis. Therefore, there was the potential for her to possibly attack Holden. She could only come up with one solution on how to keep things civil. "Okay, then I'll go in with you. I think if I'm there too she won't crush your skull with her powers. Hopefully not, anyway."

"_Hopefully_?" Holden stammered. Serena just laughed at that point, causing Holden to sigh in embarrassment. Maybe he was overreacting when it came to imagining the depths Sabrina would sink to lash out at him, but he was afraid to face her all the same. With one last deep breath, he nodded and let Serena bring him through the front door.

As soon as the two of them were inside, an old woman approached. Her face was hidden under a grey hood, which made her seem even creepier. Then to the left, a second hooded woman appeared and moved toward the two new arrivals as well. Even Serena grew worried now, abandoning her bold words from earlier as she started to back away toward the door. Holden was worried, but he changed his tune now, since feeling that these old women were threatening Serena made him switch over to protect her instead. "I'm here to see Sabrina," he announced with an unexpected degree of authority.

The two old women came to a stop at last, and appeared to glance at each for a moment to evaluate the request. They still kept silent, but after a few moments, they both turned and appeared to look down the hallway ahead. That appeared to be an opening to get away from the creepy women, so Holden took Serena's hand and went for it. Maybe it was a bit crazy entering this creepy place, but this was still a pokémon gym, not a haunted house. Holden felt he had good reason to be here, and that encouraged him to stand his ground.

Finally, the familiar face of Sabrina came into sight. She was dressed in her traditional red and black suit with yellow striped wrists, and her hair was dark green to the point that it almost seemed black. As expected, her face was red with anger, but it was different than Diantha's emotional reaction to seeing her nemesis previously. Unlike her, Sabrina seemed to harbor hatred for Holden while barely showing any humane reason to justify why. It was almost otherworldly.

Holden glanced at Serena for a moment, displaying his confidence to her suddenly, which filled her with a dose of reassurance. When he turned back to Sabrina, he felt his confidence fading fast so he needed to take care of this quickly before he lost all of it. "Sabrina. It's been a long time since we last spoke."

"Not long enough," she snapped in response to Holden's introduction. More hooded figures began to appear in the corners of the gallery, though Sabrina paid them no mind while she stood in the center and gave all her attention to Holden's intruding presence.

"Fair enough," he said calmly. Patience had been his greatest attribute along his journey, and he would tap into it yet again here today. Whatever words Sabrina spoke, he would need to let her say them. "The reason I've come here today is to address some of the recent developments with my academy…and with your actions revolving around the council's decision making." She remained motionless, but her eyes were staring with the suggestion that she could explode at any moment. Holden continued, though he spoke very calmly. "I found out you'd sent messages to the council urging them to keep the ban in place on my school. The very same ban you introduced to them years ago in the first place."

She finally broke her stillness when she tilted her head slightly to the side. "Why did you come here? To demand an apology? To mock me in my own gym? Perhaps…you came simply to ruin my morning."

Despite the rapidly building conflict, Holden shook his head in protest, hoping to extinguish it right away. "No…no, that's not why I'm here. I don't even want an apology." Sabrina moved a second time, as her eyes squinted while she pondered where he was going with this. "I mean, I would like an apology, selfishly, but quite frankly, I don't deserve one. If anything, we are even, in the sense that there was a time long ago where I threatened your gym as well when I tried to replace it with my own. So today, I am here simply to say this: _I _apologize to you, Sabrina. This was long overdue, and I failed to come to you sooner, so I also apologize for my reluctance. You've always hated me, and it was justified. I don't want things to be like this anymore between us. I'm sorry for all I've said and done to insult you and your gym."

As she watched, Serena felt moved by Holden's words. Surely, his sincerity would shine like a flashlight, even in this dark room. Sabrina always seemed very stern, but she couldn't truly be that hateful. Then again, it was much easier for Serena to regard Holden with care being his girlfriend. Ultimately, it all came down to how Sabrina felt.

For several moments, Sabrina barely moved, but then eventually she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You think an apology will make me no longer hate you?" Even Holden's solemn words wouldn't make her cave in. After all, Sabrina was famous for her stubbornness.

Once again, Holden denied her words. "What I hope, is that your hatred for me can begin to subside. I don't expect us to ever be friends, but perhaps we can put an end to the hatred and rest at ease. I think…I think that is a reasonable thing to hope for."

Sabrina remained stern, avoiding giving any further comments on his words. Instead, she motioned her head toward Serena. "Why is _she_ here?"

In response to this inquiry, Serena felt like she needed to speak up, so she took a step forward. However, Holden held a hand up, urging her to stay back. "She's here to help protect me," Holden said with a small grin.

Serena's eyes grew wide in worry at the potentially hazardous comment, but even Sabrina managed the tiniest grin in response to that. "Serena, is it? You're here to protect Holden…from _me_?"

After seeing how brave Holden had been, Serena knew she had to be strong as well. "Yes, but mainly I'm here to keep _him_ out of trouble."

At those words, Holden turned around and looked at her, pretending to grow defensive from her suggestion, though she was just smiling. When Holden turned back around, even Sabrina seemed to be in a more positive mood as well. At least, the two of them hoped for things to be positive with Sabrina.

Finally, Saffron's gym leader turned halfway to leaving, but paused to say a few more things. "Holden…don't come back to this place. Serena…come back anytime." Her words were forbidding but her tone seemed to suggest a degree of forgiveness, and that was about as good as it was going to get for now. The two travelers watched as the old women wearing hoods began to exit once their master was gone, and things returned to being silent once again. With all that done, Serena took Holden's hand and this time, _she_ led him out the door.

With that out of the way, Holden and Serena left the gym and took a cab to the train station. As they went inside, Holden started to slow down, so Serena did as well. When she checked on him, he was taking a long look back at the city, and she realized what was on his mind. "You love this place, don't you?" she asked rhetorically.

"I do," he replied. "I always have. It's strange to be leaving to live in Lumiose now." There was a hint of sadness in his voice and it was understandable. Even so, he smiled and put his arm around Serena's shoulder. "It's all for a brighter future, though. If it means Apex Academy will thrive, then I'll go through with it. That's my mission now."

Serena nodded, then turned around and held both of Holden's hands as she faced him. "Well, I'm still glad you'll be staying in Lumiose. After all, we'll be so close together."

Her hopeful words made Holden smile, and he looked down at her hands and then back to her face. "I couldn't have gotten this far without you, Serena. Thank you…for everything." They kissed each other on the lips and walked over to the train. Once they boarded, Holden placed Serena's bag under the seat before handling his own. She sat down in the seat by the window, and Holden was right next to her. Though they weren't moving, Serena had her eyes out the window in excitement.

As he watched her, Holden felt a strange sense prying at him. Though he was unsure of why he felt anything, he sensed it was related to Serena. As she remained bright and smiling, with excitement and adoration in her eyes, Holden felt like he was a few steps behind her. It was hard to pinpoint, but she seemed so sure of everything to come…unlike him. Holden's future was growing in strength surrounding Apex Academy, but that also meant his work was going to get more and more taxing as well. He'd spent years fighting to reach this point, and now maintaining things had the potential to be even harder.

In that moment, he sensed a new worry begin to manifest itself inside him: he began to worry his relationship with Serena would be strained by all the changes in his life now.


	3. Chapter 33

CHAPTER 33.

Things back in Lumiose began to settle in without too much difficulty. Holden moved into his new loft, which was attached to the Apex Academy Headquarters in northern Lumiose. The building was comprised of two sections: the first was the HQ building, while the second was the region's academy itself. With this design in place, Holden could manage affairs from all the schools under his brand in an advantageous position. He even hired staff to help him with the workload, which was going to be staggering now. After all, he'd only been burdened with one academy all these years, but now there were six of them.

Today, his biggest errand was a meeting with the Pokémon League Council. It was the first time he'd be meeting with them since winning the National Championship, and he hoped things would be significantly less hostile this time around. His battle against Serena had become the stuff of legend now, and fans of the sport had been talking about it ever since. It was ranked as one of the best victories ever in the sport, as well as one of the most exciting. Surely, _that_ had to be enough to earn the council's respect.

When Holden reached the meeting room at the end of Victory Road, Professor Oak greeted him at the door. They shook hands and exchanged a few pleasantries before Oak got to business. "I'm glad you came to our meeting today, Holden. Not all of the council is present, but we have enough members to begin discussion on this year's upcoming National Championship."

Though it was exciting, Holden suspected there was more to it than just that. "Talk of the next tournament is exciting, Professor, but I still can't help but wonder why they chose to invite _me_ to a meeting this time around?"

Oak chuckled, but respected Holden's humility. "I get it, Holden. You're not used to being viewed by the Pokémon League in positive light. But the truth is, _you _are the National Champion this time, and by that tremendous feat, you have a place at this table for discussion of the next tournament. Now, be polite, and remember you're not among enemies anymore. Try and take pleasure in your involvement."

It was hard to argue against any of that, and Holden nodded in acceptance before following Professor Oak inside. At the table, he quickly saw Alder, Iris, Cynthia, and Lance. Just as he walked in, Diantha entered the meeting room as well, along with two other people he'd never seen before. When Diantha saw Holden, she gave him a thoughtful glance, but there was no hostility. Maybe Professor Oak was right, or so Holden hoped for the time being.

Once everyone sat down, Diantha started things off. "Good morning, everyone. Today's meeting will have some special guests. We have Elliot Golding representing the Johto Pokémon Commission, which will be assigning referees and staff for the tournament this year. Next, we have Tohro Yamaguchi, who is in charge of hosting the event, which will take place south of Goldenrod City." After the two men stood and bowed during their introductions, Diantha's gaze finally reached Holden. "And finally, we have the new National Champion, Holden Hoffman, here today as well." To Holden's surprise, the council members clapped in respect, and it was a strange thing to experience. Still, it felt good to receive something other than disdain from the Pokémon League, even if only for a moment, so he was gracious and bowed. Diantha kept her eyes on him for a few moments, and then continued. "With all of the excitement and buzz that was stirred up from last year's event, the Pokémon League has been hard at work trying to determine a method of elevating the event even further than before. This, of course, has been most difficult."

Oak sat down next to Cynthia, and the blonde woman wearing a black trench coat had a look of intrigue in her eyes. One thing that always seemed to be true was that Cynthia was the quietest member of the council, yet she was held in very high regard. This was the Sinnoh Regional Champion, and she'd held onto that title for over ten years. Her pokémon team was considered one of the strongest and most well-rounded teams ever assembled. As the meeting went underway, Diantha eventually shifted the spotlight to Cynthia, who would be the one to give the next announcement. Once it was time, Cynthia postured up and began to speak. "I would like to start by mentioning that while we all had ideas on how to improve next year's tournament, it was Iris who sparked the biggest idea. After much deliberation, we've decided to implement it." The announcement was big apparently, because Cynthia paused for a few moments before finally sharing it with everyone. "This year…the National Pokémon Championship Series will be a double elimination event."

When Holden heard it, he was hardly able to contain his excitement. Never before had the National Championship been conducted with a double elimination bracket, so this would be a major change.

Sensing an explanation was necessary, Cynthia was quick to provide one. "Last year's tournament was the biggest one ever in the sport. Fan interest has spiked dramatically in the last two years, and a major factor in that is clearly Holden Hoffman." Now, she was staring at him, and Holden gulped nervously, even though she appeared to be giving him praise. It was the way she talked with a cold voice that prevented Holden from gaining praise from her words. "His exploits have inspired countless aspiring trainers in the world. What that means, is more and more young trainers are signing up for the tournament, and thus we believe shaping the tournament to appeal to them will reward their great sacrifice to attend it. With this new format, every combatant gets to fight at least two battles, so even after one loss, they will have the chance to keep on fighting. Some of these entrants travel from very far away to compete, and now they'll be guaranteed an increase of battle time."

The announcement and explanation was met with clapping, including from the two executives, so it didn't appear to meet any opposition. However, Holden unexpectedly felt the need to voice his opinion on the matter. "A double elimination tournament is a great idea, but there's a reason it was never a logical option in the past. This will double the length of the tournament and complicate the entire process. What if the viewers cannot maintain attention long enough to commit to viewing it?"

Rather than getting defensive, the council members respected Holden's thoughts on the matter. Next up to speak was Lance. "Based on our studies, including surveys from thousands of people, the double elimination tournament will be a big hit. However, we also recognize that it would best be used only for special occasions. Therefore, seeing as this is the 10th National Pokémon Championship Series, we will declare that the new format only takes place once every ten years." After that response, Holden was satisfied, especially considering he'd always wanted the championship to be in that format when he used to compete. Now that it was finally happening, he wasn't going to be an obstacle against it. Lance gave Holden a competitive look suddenly, and Holden wondered what was on his mind. "Holden Hoffman, I never got the chance to congratulate you personally on your victory last year. Though I've been on a crusade that's taken me far around the world, I couldn't help but turn my attention to your recent exploits. Now that I have this opportunity, I would like to personally tell you something: _I_ will be competing in the National Championship this year, and I hope we get the chance to finally battle each other."

This was huge news, and Holden took the announcement as a personal challenge, and one made out of respect. He rose from his seat, and then bowed to Lance, hoping to demonstrate how strongly he respected the amazing pokémon master. Lance bowed in return, though the competitive grin on his face remained. If the two of them ended up battling each other this year, everyone would be watching curiously to see who the victor would be.

With that out of the way, Alder took a turn to speak. "It is true we haven't always seen eye-to-eye with you, Holden, but I hope this time we can work together to make this event a memorable one. You _are_ the current champion, and your influence can generate a higher attendance both in combatants and spectators. Can we count on you to be available for media obligations?"

This would be no easy feat, but Holden wouldn't dare refuse. He was finally on the Pokémon League Council's good side and he couldn't lose it now that he had it. "Yes, I'll make time for all of it."

Everyone nodded in appreciation, and everything seemed to go well. The meeting eventually reached an end, and Holden prepared to make his exit. Though it had been long, it had also been very interesting to learn about the many things to come. At the same time, Holden was a bit weighed down by the additional chores now added to his workload. There was so much to do now, and he didn't know how much more he could handle.

Before he could leave, Diantha addressed him. "Holden, please come meet me with me before you go." He turned back around and watched as she made her way to one of the other rooms. Though he was eager to be done with the day, Holden approached the meeting room where she'd entered. Whatever this was about, he hoped things would remain civil between the two of them.

Holden took a seat at Diantha's request, while she sat down on the other side of the desk. "It sounds like you've been doing a great job with your new schools."

It was peaceful enough, and Holden nodded humbly. "Everything's been going smooth so far, though it's been pretty busy," he explained.

Diantha leaned back in her seat, and it appeared as though her usual disdain for Holden had diminished. "When we fought on that battlefield, my Gardevoir versus your Scizor, I saw something I'd never seen before. You proved me _wrong_: your pokémon won the battle with your teaching style, despite me always doubting you." She stroked her hair as she took a moment to reminisce on the feeling. "It wasn't easy to accept that defeat. You did a great job."

It was very strange seeing Diantha in this new light, but Holden had no motivation at all to mock her for it. After finally achieving the unthinkable and acquiring Diantha's respect, Holden was determined to return it. "It was a new sight for me as well. To be honest, it was hard for me to believe my team could beat yours. It's always been hard."

"But still, you battled. And _they_ battled with you, and you all were victorious," she said. "Now, I'm hoping that things can be different moving forward. You're in a position to represent the entire sport now, and thus I have a request to make you. On behalf of all the pokémon trainers in the world, please…_please_…be a good figure for pokémon."

Her request was cliché, but it was still a deep one, and Holden knew it. Besides, Diantha had honored her promise and changed her vote to uplift the ban on his school. Holden would never forget that. "I will do my best to represent the sport well," he said solemnly, declaring a promise of his own.

After Diantha appeared to accept Holden's vow, she nodded and looked pleased. They both stood up and she held her hand out to him. He shook it respectfully, and they looked into each other's eyes to further demonstrate their newly-acquired peace. After a few moments, they both made their exit.


	4. Chapter 34

CHAPTER 34.

Things over at Apex Academy Kalos were running efficiently, and Holden was already seeing great strides in the classes. With his office next door, he could easily come to check on the classes whenever he felt like it, which ended up being every day. He would even sit in to watch the students train during his coffee and meal breaks.

One unexpected friend came through to help out with the running the school: Berto. Surprisingly, Holden's former roommate had grown to respect the work at Apex Academy, and so Holden brought him on board to be an assistant coach. While Berto started off with very little knowledge in the art of pokémon battles, he was very good at fitness, being that he was a highly accomplished competitive swimmer. Therefore, Berto was able to help the students with personal fitness, which was a big part of Holden's class design. His school encouraged trainers to be physically fit as well, to help inspire their pokémon to be stronger.

Holden was sitting in to watch the class today, enjoying a cup of Saffron Tranquility, when a familiar person walked into the building: Roxy. She was wearing a purple shirt with long white sleeves, and she had colored her hair to match the purple as well. As always, she had thick glasses on, so she was easy to spot. When Holden saw her enter, he smiled and waved a hand. "Good afternoon, Roxy. What brings you here?"

As was typical with her, she said nothing, but she sat down nearby. Holden smiled as he watched her, figuring she would come forward to speak more…in time. For now, she appeared to want to watch the class, and there was nothing wrong with that. Holden turned his attention back to the students, as well as his coffee.

When the class came to an end, Berto approached Holden and Roxy. His forehead was covered with sweat, and he used a white towel to clear it away. His once long hair was still gone, after Berto had elected to shave it off. After so many months, Holden could barely remember what his hair looked like when he first met him. "When did Roxy come in?" he asked as he pointed to her.

Holden let out a small laugh. "A little while ago. Guess she wanted to watch the class too."

Berto gazed at Roxy now, which caused her to look down, avoiding eye contact. He laughed as he walked over and patted her shoulder in a friendly manner. "I think you play a bit too rough for these kids," he complimented her, referencing her pokémon team specifically. "But there's an advanced class we're running now. Why don't you try it out tonight? Just one time, no charge." Though he offered it, he glanced over at Holden, since of course, Holden was the one with that authority.

Though Holden gave Berto a scolding look, he still chuckled and nodded. "Of course, you're welcome to attend a class. Maybe you'll have fun."

Despite the friendly offer, Roxy just shook her head. She was the quietest person Holden had ever met, but that was merely her way. In fact, she'd never even spoken a single word to Holden. Apparently, Berto claimed to have conversed with her on occasion, but no one else had witnessed it. Still, Berto and Roxy seemed to share a friendship, or at least an understanding.

Once the students had cleared out, Berto walked back with Holden inside his office. They both went inside and Holden plopped down in his seat, while Berto was picking up and touching everything he could find, much to Holden's irritation. "You've done quite well for yourself, Mr. National Champion," Berto said with praise, though it sounded almost mocking as he joked. "Hard to believe you accomplished so much since I first met you. How are you gonna outdo yourself this time around? It's hard to have a better year than that."

It was difficult to disagree with that, but Holden was still seeking to find a way. "This time around, I have to attend a ton of press conferences and media events for the tournament. Basically, I need to hype the fans and encourage viewers to tune in, especially with the new format being double elimination. They've never done it this way before, so the Pokémon League is really confident it will be a hit." After saying that, Holden let out a sigh as he considered the other side of things. "But there's so much that could go _wrong_. And if anything does…I doubt my current good terms with the council would endure it."

"You really think they'll blame you for their problems?" asked Berto. "Seems kind of unfair putting you in that position."

Holden raised both hands up in submission. "It can't be helped. If things go wrong, it would be bad for the Pokémon League, as well as the sport in general. When I was younger, I made a mockery of my opponents in competition, which caused them to despise me for many years. They don't want to be insulted again like that, especially for the public to see. So now…the newest problem is a trained named Dwyer." Berto scratched his head as he tried to remember the name, but Holden pressed on. "He's the guy I beat in the semifinals last year. It was his first ever national tournament, but he was…incredibly powerful. His team wiped out top ranked trainers, and he added insult to injury by mocking them afterwards. His poor character was a great insult, and the league doesn't want him to represent the sport, but with a pokémon team that powerful…Dwyer could end up winning the tournament this year."

Even though Berto had always been against pokémon battles, he appeared very interested as Holden explained the outlook of the competition. "But you'll just beat him again this year…just like before. So as long as you do, he won't be a problem, right?"

After so many years of experience, Holden knew better. "It's not that simple," he explained. "We have a sport with format and rules, but we don't get to decide who wins and who loses. This is a competition, and sometimes, the people we don't like are the ones who end up winning. I never paid this any mind when I was younger, but now that I'm the National Champion…they're expecting _me_ to represent the sport. And that's what I'm going to do, to the best of my abilities. So that is why I'm adopting this mindset now. Because I'm aware of how things could potentially go wrong and cause the event to suffer in the process. If things go wrong and the National Pokémon Championship Series suffers…my academy will suffer as well."

Once Berto left to go back next door to begin cleaning up the academy, Holden resumed his paperwork. He had a lot of notices from his original school back in Saffron City, since they were having some issues with the city. Apparently, Saffron City was raising the rates for many buildings if pokémon were present, on account of the hazards they were capable of. These recent tax increases were doing financial damage to Apex Kanto, and Holden needed to figure out a way to pay it. In the past, he would always go to where the problems were and try to solve them, but now he had so many things already lined up. Even hiring people to help him wasn't enough so far. He felt the increase in stress from his desire to run things accordingly. If only life and business were the same as pokémon battles. When it came to that art, Holden was extremely comfortable. After all, his pokémon were so highly-trained, he could permit them to act on their own without worry. When it came to the other aspects of his life, however, Holden found he had control issues. The stress appeared to originate from the greatest joy in his life: Apex Academy. Making sure his school had the best care and attention was a full time job, and he always felt like he couldn't take a single day off. In fact, it was hard to take even a few hours off.

Eventually, Holden took a break from the paperwork and eyed his phone. He thought about Serena, and her life as a pokémon performer. Her dream was full of demands as well, being that she was a celebrity in the Kalos region. Yet, she was constantly setting time aside to be with him. He didn't understand how she was always able to do that, especially since more often than not it revolved around meeting his tough schedule. To top it all off, she wanted even more out of him now as well.

It felt as if his entire life was close to snapping.


	5. Chapter 35

CHAPTER 35.

The first major press conference for the 10th National Pokémon Championship Series was taking place in front of Parfum Palace, and the numbers in attendance were very high. This was the first big event leading up to the great tournament, which was expected to reach a new record in combatants once again this year.

When Holden arrived, even his coffee couldn't keep his spirits up. His movements were more strained every day, and he was starting to feel it. The hunger he had to compete was there, but it was hard to chase after it with so many other issues wearing him down. As Holden gazed upon the large number of motivated pokémon trainers, he never felt more vulnerable up against them as he did today.

At first, with Serena unable to accompany Holden due to some work commitments, he was going to come to the event alone. However, Kelly, the young trainer who'd befriended Holden at the last event, volunteered to go with him for support. Ash was also with him, but he had media obligations of his own, and so he'd be busy too. Though the three of them traveled there together, they eventually had to split up to handle their duties.

At some point, Cynthia spotted Holden, and she approached him. "Welcome back to the spotlight, Holden," she said, acquiring his attention. When he became aware of her presence, he tried to restore his image of confidence by concealing his recent strain. Even after Holden shook his head in response, Cynthia twitched her lips, as if his stress was blatantly obvious. "I've been at this a long time, Holden. I can see you are worn out. Perhaps, when this tournament is over, you should take some time off."

Though he didn't want to respond to that, since it would confirm his fatigue, Holden couldn't stop himself. "There's no time to take a day off. I need to run my schools. I need to train for the tournament. I need to…to be at media events like this." Maintaining his composure was more of a chore now than it used to be for him. "How do you do this constantly? I mean, you've been the Sinnoh Regional Champion for years, yet you're always so calm."

If there was ever anyone who seemed to perform her duties with effortlessness, it was Cynthia. She was always composed and committed to her work ethic, which kept her at the top of the game. Surely, even _she_ had to suffer from the stress on occasion? Nonetheless, Cynthia rarely revealed any of her emotions. Holden wanted to be like her in that regard…so he sought advice now.

Despite his inquiry, Cynthia would not be so willing to share her secrets. "If I were to tell you how I deal with my affairs, you'd likely find it inexplicable." Holden failed to comprehend what she meant, but luckily for him, she provided additional details. "We each have our own methods of getting things done. Pokémon are similar, in that they have a large variety of different types, yet they find their best abilities and use them to accomplish their goals. Whatever those may be." Holden was humbled by the brief conversation, but Cynthia was kind enough to motion down toward one of the meeting platforms. "You'll need to speak to these people today. Remember what the council warned you about. Represent the Pokémon League well, as we must always maintain a strong and respectful attitude." With her true purpose for approaching Holden revealed, Cynthia made her exit, returning to the media guests to continue answering questions.

Kelly accompanied Holden to the meeting platform, and word of his arrival spread fast, causing fans to form a line to meet him. Holden smiled and waved, despite how unpleasant he felt inside, and started meeting and greeting the fans. It was a great experience for the fans, as many of them wanted to share their experiences watching him compete for a long time. Among all the fans, there were students who wanted to attend his schools, parents who wanted him to teach their kids, and girls who wanted to go on dates with him. The entire time, Holden was friendly and calm, which made the day very manageable. He remained in that position for over an hour until the staff called him over to speak at the conference.

"You'll do great," Kelly said with encouragement. She looked over Holden closely, and fixed a few messy hairs on his head for him. Holden felt a bit awkward, but he allowed her to help him. "Done," she announced. "You look good. They're gonna love you out there. Go enjoy it. You've earned it, after all."

While Holden remained downcast, the thought of having earned adoration filled him somewhat with a boost. After all, he had many people who cared for him and looked after him now…when there was once a time he had virtually no friends. This was something he could never take for granted. And for what he was feeling, people like Kelly often went through similar challenges as well. This was what friends did for each other. They helped elevate each other to new heights.

Right before Holden reached the conference section, a familiar figure suddenly walked in front of him to obstruct his path…Dwyer. The young trash-talking trainer was wearing a pink shirt and black pants, while his hat was pink and his glasses had light blue tint, as if they were sunglasses. "If you were a real champion, you'd admit your victory was a fluke," Dwyer said, trying to rile up Holden. "That victory was in my hands, and you managed one desperate attack which would normally never land. You lose in that scenario 99 out of 100 times."

With so much on his mind, Holden had no interest in wasting any of his precious time dealing with this clown. However, they were both about to go to the conference, and he would need to deal with him one way or another, so best to stand his ground. "You're new to this game," Holden talked down to him. "You've caused some trouble, but you've spent too much of your time trying hard to be in the spotlight. If you spent even half of all that time becoming a better trainer, you'd actually have a chance at winning."

"Winning will be easy this year," Dwyer insisted, sounding supremely confident. "With this new format, I'll be even more advantaged than ever before. It's a shame you have to get your team of pokémon to practically fight to the death just to snatch a victory. I can win without my pokémon breaking a sweat, which is how I'm gonna win it this year." Holden took a few steps forward, until he was right in front of Dwyer's face. Suddenly, Dwyer brought back his right hand, forming a fist, and threw it forward. Holden had to leap back, only to see Dwyer jokingly lift up his hat with the hand and stroke his hair in taunting fashion. Holden gritted his teeth irritably, and was about to go for some form of retaliation, but Dwyer quickly turned and made his way to the conference area, holding his arms high in the air to snatch the attention of the people present.

Holden could only sigh. This was going to be a long day.

Things went underway, and the reporters poured in to get in as much screen time with the celebrity trainers as possible. There was plenty of good energy in the crowd, especially once Diantha and Lance took their turns to speak. Lance, in particular, was unique in that he'd become the Regional Champion in both Kanto and Sinnoh, so far making him the only trainer to win multiple regional championships. What Lance was really known for, though, was his life's work studying and training dragon type pokémon. After all, Lance was the first trainer ever to delve into the rarest pokémon type, but it paid off greatly as his passion eventually led to him discovering a number of new species. Lance was one of the strongest pokémon trainers to ever exist, yet he hadn't competed in the National Championship in years now. Even so, the two times he did enter the tournament, he won the title, even beating Diantha one year.

While Lance had a huge following, Holden's fan base had grown at a quick rate to make him one of the most popular trainers in the world. His questions from reporters mainly revolved around his academy and training methods, but naturally he was asked a lot about the previous year's epic tournament performances against Iris, Dwyer, and Diantha. Though much was on his mind still, Holden felt comfortable as he gave his answers, once again embracing the opportunity to represent his school well. With the Pokémon League expecting him to be a good representative for them now as well, he merely acted the same as he would for his own school, which led to positive results. Simply by firmly believing he had to be at his best, Holden was capable of getting the job done, though he remained stressed inside.

It was Dwyer who stirred things up on his end. His following had grown considerably as well, even with how brash he was. His fans were people who seemed to enjoy talking trash as well, and they were acting unpleasant any chance they got. Once Holden saw how they behaved, he comprehended Diantha's warning a great deal more. There was no doubt that a trainer lacking in class like this who made deep strides in the tournament was going to cause trouble for the sport, and potentially ruin the experience for hundreds of people…or more.

Hours later, Holden was done with his role in the event, and he could finally call it a day. He reconvened with Kelly, who surprised him with some mochi. "Figured you could use a treat after all you did today."

Though he normally avoided those kinds of treats, Holden accepted it this time. "Thank you, Kelly. I'm exhausted…and hungry." They both took a seat so they could relax and enjoy some mochi. The sun was going to set soon, thus inviting colder weather to finally provide relief when evening approached. With everything moving so fast, it was a blessing to have the chance to rest long enough to enjoy something simple and relaxing.

"Holden, can I ask you something?" Kelly brought up suddenly.

He lowered his treat and gave her his attention. "Sure. What is it?"

She paused to reconsider, but then went for it. "Do you think I should enter the tournament this year? I've competed two years in a row, and I did improve last time, but in the end, I still got completely overpowered. This time around, it's gonna be even tougher for my pokémon to handle the pace with it being double elimination. Maybe…I'm just not ready to compete at the highest tournament level yet."

Kelly had a good point, and Holden analyzed the situation before responding. "Kelly, you are a talented, aspiring trainer, and I can see why you improved so fast. You were hard on yourself when you suffered a setback, which can happen after you put in so much hard work and sacrifice to win." He placed the plate from his mochi down on the ground. "When you enter the most prestigious tournaments in the pokémon world, you're subjecting yourself to a great experience, but you're also going in knowing your chances of winning are very slim. That's the case with all the combatants, because only one trainer can win the entire thing. Compare it to smaller local tournaments, with less competition, and easier opponents. You could always go to those and increase your chances of winning, but the payoff would be small. So if you ask me what I think you should do, this is my best answer: Enter the double elimination tournament this year…for the experience. If you fail to win the title, it's not such a bad thing. Fight with all you've got in every match and discover just how far you and your pokémon can go, because _that_ is an experience that resonates with the heart and soul of pokémon training. I would never advise you against something like that."

Kelly nodded and took a moment to absorb the words. She wiped a small tear from her left eye and felt empowered from the wisdom. "Thank you, Holden…for everything. I want to keep training under your teachings too. I want you to know, I plan to sign up with your academy back home in the Johto region."

That was good news for Holden, but he felt he could improve on it even. "You've been a good friend, Kelly. If you are ever interested, I'd like to invite you to train with me personally in preparing for the National Championship. Ash is going to be training as well. We could use the extra help. Are you interested?"

It was an easy answer for Kelly. "Yes, of course I am in! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She got up to give Holden a hug in gratitude, and he smiled back. His journey over the past few years had been filled with unexpected new friendships, and he was grateful for all the good he'd found along the way.


	6. Chapter 36

CHAPTER 36.

ONE MONTH LATER

It was another day at the office for Holden. His energy levels were low at the moment, on account of many nights with limited sleep. He'd gone from one cup of coffee a day to three now, and things didn't seem to get any easier. As passionate as he was, he knew he had his limits, and he'd nearly reached them at this point.

Serena was with him, sitting in a chair going through messages on her phone quietly while he worked. She'd been supportive of Holden's heavy workload, but he realized she was not going to put up with his lack of energy forever. Like him, there was only so much she would be willing to endure.

Even so, the day carried on and Holden spent hours navigating emails for the variety of organizations involved with sponsoring his schools for competitions. Though he had people who could help with this in each region, he still wanted to handle it himself, hoping that his reputation as the National Champion would encourage financial support for his schools. There was a strong chance that it would help greatly, but he needed to act fast while he remained in the spotlight.

"Holden!" Berto shouted from the other room. "Someone's here to see you."

Holden didn't budge, but he called out to Berto. "Send him in."

Moments later, the visitor slowly walked into the office, and Holden's eyes were pulled away from computer when he realized who it was: _Jasmine_.

His breathing stopped completely. There she was, in his office right now, and with Serena sitting in the room. Holden couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't _think_ of any method of response. What was she doing here all of a sudden?

"Hello, Holden," she said in a low voice. She wasn't smiling, especially when she looked over and saw Serena. "It's been awhile." Holden stared at her helplessly, and was clueless on how to respond. Meanwhile, Serena's eyes left her phone and stared curiously at the new woman in the room. Now that Serena was paying attention, Jasmine began to speak. "After all those things you told me, Holden, I now know the truth. I know that you were a _liar_. You were always lying. I wish I hadn't fallen for it for so long."

The hurtful words were burning holes inside Holden, and he wanted to swear at her. Because he'd rejected her, now she came here just to throw gasoline and fire on his life in retaliation, He'd never suspected she would do something like this. The soft spoken and shy gym leader from Olivine City had crossed a new threshold in her life, which didn't bode well for Holden's life in return.

Holden tried to speak up. "Jasmine…I didn't lie to you…."

"_Keep on lying_," she interrupted, speaking louder than he'd ever heard her talk before. "You told me many things, and only now do I realize how long you were deceiving me. What I offered you was genuine love and care, yet you took advantage of my heart. I should have known! I should have known…."

Suddenly, Serena stood up from her seat and came forward to confront Jasmine, much to Holden's horror. There was a sharp anger in Serena's eyes and she was not going to stand idly by. "Listen, whoever you are, you have no right to barge into Holden's office and start screaming at him! Leave, now!" She crossed her arms and stood firmly in place, coming to Holden's rescue unexpectedly, while he remained bewildered.

Jasmine didn't leave so easily. "You? _You_? You're just his next victim. You're just too stupid to realize it."

Despite the insult, Serena remained unfazed, though anger was across her face. She lowered her voice, hoping it would encourage Jasmine to do the same. "Leave, _now_," she ordered one more time, commanding authority even when she used less volume.

Though she was distraught as tears fell down her face, Jasmine slowly backed away at last, and then stormed out of the office. Holden and Serena could hear the door crash shut, along with broken glass from it closing with too much force. "She broke the door," Berto yelled from the other room.

Despite his humorous take, things were anything but inside the office. Holden felt his breath returning to him gradually, and he walked over to the office door and shut it. Serena hadn't moved from where she was standing, except now she had her gaze fixed on Holden as she was trying to make sense of what happened. Once Holden closed the door, he walked back to his desk and sat down. There was silence for a long time, but Holden knew there was no escaping this room now. There was no way Serena would let him out until he gave an explanation.

Eventually, Serena moved again and went to sit down across from Holden. Her eyes were resisting tears, though her anger was still the predominant emotion inside her at the moment. She waited until Holden looked into her eyes, so she was sure he would hear her with full clarity. "_Tell me who that was_."

It was time to face this, and Holden had no other choice. "That's Jasmine, the Olivine City Gym leader from the Johto region."

"Why was she here?" Serena said, still very tense.

The answer was obvious all the same. "She's my ex."

Serena was close to swearing, but she kept her emotions in check…for now. "You never told me anything about her, Holden. Not a single thing." He'd never seen Serena so tense and angry before, and it was terrifying. "_Why_?"

With his back to the wall, Holden's fear began to show as he searched for a way out. "I used to date her, but it was nothing serious. I only ever saw her when I went to visit the Johto region. But she…she got too obsessed and I had to end communication with her."

For a moment, he thought he'd gotten a reasonable explanation together, but Serena would not be so easily convinced. "Holden, there's no way that's true. If it wasn't anything serious, then you wouldn't have hidden it from me." Her eyes were close to crying, but she refused to do so while she was interrogating her boyfriend. "Did she love you? Did you love her? What is it that I'm missing? Why don't I deserve to know these answers? What am I just a burden to you? Do you think I'm too weak? Too dumb?"

Sensing things were starting to fall apart, Holden raised his hands and tried to patch up the damage. "Serena, I'm a pokémon trainer. I'm one of the best in the world. But I'm _not_ a good boyfriend. I don't know what to do, or even what to say. When I used to travel, I had no friends, and I accepted friendships when I found them. That's what Jasmine was to me at first, but over time she began to increase her affections for me. I didn't know what to do about it, or what to say. But I _never_ cared for her in that way." After saying that, Holden paused before attempting to return to what really mattered to him now. "But I _do_ care for you, Serena. I really do."

Even with what appeared to be sincerity in his words, Serena shook her head. "No…you don't. I'm just the next special _friend_ in your life to have for moral support in all your exploits. I've got a good life too, you know. I put my life on pause countless times to come and support yours, and when I told you all the things I felt, I sacrificed my safe guards as well, knowing I would risk the heartache if I was wrong when I felt we were both in love. That's right, Holden, I love you. _Loved_ you. Now, I see the truth, and congratulations you won the battle. You broke my heart, and won the battle, and I lost." The tears were finally breaking through her barricades, but she was already headed for the door. Holden could only hold up a hand in desperation and shock as she left…from everything.

Serena stamped her exit with a glass shattering sound from the front door to the gym. As Holden stood motionless and devastated, Berto yelled from the other room. "She broke the door even more."


	7. Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37.

Holden was in a meeting, but he was virtually useless the entire time. Several trainers from different regions had come to visit so they could begin making traveling arrangements on behalf of students from Apex Academy. In addition, there were travel agents and even parents there to provide funds and assistance. The National Pokémon Championship Series was taking place in the Johto region this year, and Holden offered shelter to students who wanted to arrive there up to a month early to train closer to the event. Not only that, but Holden acquired a decent amount of wealth thanks to his media appearances. He spent most of that money helping to start up the new schools, but managed to save up enough to pay some of the fees for housing and meals to keep the students taken care of. All in all, the meeting was filled with great energy, and all the guests set time aside to show their gratitude for Holden's contributions.

When the meeting was over, Holden slumped down in his office chair and felt dead inside.

Even with how busy he was, the only thing really on Holden's mind was Serena. She hadn't contacted him at all, and she wouldn't respond to any of his messages. With how rotten things had turned, he was afraid he'd never see her again. With each passing day, Holden only felt worse. No matter how many times he went over everything in his mind, he failed to see a way to make things right. After all the repairs he'd completed in his life over the past two years, this feeling of powerlessness was overwhelming. He began to invite the possibility that she'd never speak to him again, but he hadn't accepted it quite yet. There was still a chance he could talk to her at some point and straighten things out. In time, hopefully, she would respond to his attempts to reach out to her.

There was a knock on the door, and Ash was suddenly outside Holden's office. "Hey Holden, how's it going?"

Holden waved in greeting, though it was clearly lacking in energy. He wondered what Serena had told Ash about how things had ended and was afraid to bring any of it up himself. After all, Ash had been Serena's friend long before he showed up. Therefore, he couldn't possibly expect Ash to side with him over her.

Ash sat down at Holden's desk and looked him over. "You don't look good, bud."

In response, Holden tried to posture up and erase his depression from view. "I'm getting by. How've you been? Training a lot?"

Though Holden was trying to change the subject, Ash wasn't here to speak about training. "Serena was really upset," he explained. "She wouldn't tell me much about what happened. After a while, I decided…to come ask you." This wasn't something Ash was fully comfortable doing, since he was aware of how sensitive things were, but he felt obligation as a friend to offer some form of support.

Holden nodded in appreciation. At the very least, he would let Ash know the truth. "I screwed up, Ash. I made a mistake. Serena didn't do anything wrong. This is all _my_ fault, not hers." Even though Ash looked like he was about to protest, Holden raised his hand firmly to insist on his claim. "I've come to terms with it. But now, I just want to talk to her again, and ask her to forgive me. Whatever it costs, I'll do it." Ash could only nod and think about what he could even say to help. After all, it would come down to whether or not Serena was willing to forgive Holden for his actions. Sensing he was burdening Ash now, Holden had to clear that up as well. "You don't owe me anything, Ash. I know she's one of your best friends. You should stay with her, look after her…and don't risk losing her friendship over me."

"Holden…" Ash began.

"No," Holden stopped him again. "You've been a good friend to me, and I will always respect you. I'm asking you to stay away from me. Serena doesn't deserve to suffer anymore from my mistakes. Stay with her, I don't want her losing any of her friends on my account."

"That's not going to happen," Ash said, raising his voice to take a stand now. "Holden, you're my friend too. Serena won't demand that we stop being friends. I know her, and she's a good person. You know she is too. As for our friendship, if you're asking me to stay on her side above yours, then I'll honor that request. However, we are still friends, Holden."

This stand from Ash moved Holden unexpectedly, and he felt significantly less miserable than he did several minutes ago. This reminded Holden about the Pokémon League, and how they tried to control the way things flowed in their tournaments. If he tried to do the same with people, he would be making the same mistake they did. Holden had no claim to make those kinds of decisions for people around him, for they had free will to think and act as they truly felt.

Eventually, Ash patted Holden's shoulder in reassurance before making his exit. Once he was gone, Berto came through the door, while Roxy was standing just outside. Holden saw him enter and flinched as Berto grabbed Holden's shoulders and urged him to stand up. "Listen to me, pal. It's about time you got out and took a break from all this madness. I mean, what are you trying to do? Have a heart attack before you even turn 30? You're working every single day and it's crazy."

Holden didn't even have the energy to fight back, and Berto helped him stand. Roxy walked in and propped the door open, while Berto assisted Holden in walking out of his office. Finally, Holden started walking himself, and Berto released his shoulders so he could clap. "That's the spirit. Now, you're coming with me, buddy. You too, Roxy." The girl with thick glasses immediately turned around to flee, but Berto seized her by the shoulders and pulled her back in to the huddle. The three friends took a cab to Restaurant Le Yeah on Autumnal Avenue. Holden didn't want to be out like this, but in the company of his two friends it wasn't so bad. At least, his depression was less noticeable with the others hanging with him.

Roxy sat next to Holden, while Berto had the other side of the booth to himself. "We're having some drinks tonight. It's about time all three of us cast aside some of our stress."

"I've told you many times I don't drink," Holden rejected the proposal. Roxy was looking down quietly like she always did, trying to avoid the need to actually voice her disapproval.

Berto wasn't having it though. "Holden, I seldom pressure you past a certain point, but tonight this is exactly what you need. Take a few drinks and let me tell you stories about how I nearly died out in the ocean numerous times, and we'll get your mind off of the bad stuff. Deal?" Holden wanted to refuse still, but the thought of getting the pain off his mind temporarily was tempting enough to illicit a change of mind. Now that Holden was on board, Berto motioned to Roxy next. "Roxy, Holden is our friend, and right now he's in pain. You mean to tell me you won't try to help cheer him up? After everything he's done for you and me? Come on, Roxy. He's our _friend_."

This time, Roxy turned her head and looked up at Holden. He sighed and held his hand up to put a stop to it. "Don't listen to him. I don't need you to drink if you don't want to. I'll be fine."

Roxy stared at Holden for a few moments, and then twitched her lips and gave Berto a look after. He smiled and laughed with delight. "That's the spirit. Drinks on me." Sure enough, Berto got the server to bring over three wine glasses, and soon they were filled with pinot noir. Berto and Holden tapped glasses and took large sips of their drink first. Then Berto urged Roxy to raise her glass and toast with them. She leaned her head back, as if she wanted to retreat, but ultimately she did join in on the toast and even sipped from the glass.

It didn't take long for the group of friends to catch a solid buzz from the drinks. A couple of hours went by, and everyone was squirming and laughing as they reacted to the inebriation. Even Roxy was making strange little movements and twitching in confusion as she tried to comprehend what she was going through. Holden kept on dropping his head forward when he talked, and one time he accidentally knocked over the glass of water nearby and spilled it on the table cloth. The server came by to clean it up, and Holden was apologizing and offering to buy a new cloth to make up for it.

When the server left, Berto addressed it. "That's the thing about you, Holden. You always try to fix everything you deem broken. You know, there are some things that you can't possibly fix sometimes. It's about time you came to accept that part of life."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean you probably want to just get back with that sweet girl," Berto was now talking about Serena. "And you're gonna go apologize to her and tell her you'll do anything to make things right. But Holden…I tried to do the same thing with Scott. Guess what, I know better now. Now, I know we actually broke up for a good reason. It wasn't because I was bad one day. It was actually because we had problems _all the time_. So look at what was going on with you and her, Holden. I highly doubt you two broke up just because you never told her about your ex."

Holden was unable to respond, or even move. He just sat there dumbfounded and crushed as it all came right back to him. Serena was right about what she said of him, and that made him feel even more miserable. Berto saw that Holden wasn't feeling good and decided to stop. Even he sensed when it was time to back off. He waved the server down and asked for the check, then left to go to the bathroom. Holden was sitting there not moving, trying to figure out what to feel when it was all said and done.

Suddenly, Holden felt a small hand touch his on the table. He looked and saw it was Roxy. She looked grossed out at the sight of Holden in bad spirits, but she awkwardly offered consolation anyway. Somehow, the sight of it was enough to tweak with Holden's drunken heart enough to push a couple tears out and he covered his eyes with his hands to conceal it. Though it practically pained her to do it, Roxy stretched to get her arm around Holden's shoulder and gave him a long distance side hug. She rolled her eyes and tried not to look at him while she offered her companionship, but she still gave it.

Eventually, Roxy pulled away and returned to her seat in the corner of the booth. Holden had cleared his eyes now, though his insides were still muddled with sorrow. He looked Roxy in the eyes and she gave him a glare as she pressed a finger to her lips, demanding he tell no one.

Holden allowed a tiny grin and he nodded, just as Berto was returning with his wallet out, ready to pay the bill.


	8. Chapter 38

CHAPTER 38.

The next day, Holden had a small headache, which seemed to distract him from the pain in his heart at least. After having his morning coffee, he went to work, and found it difficult to proceed with his responsibilities for the day. This caused him to think about life instead.

With all the stress he was under, he had been ineffective at managing all the affairs in his life. The stress and work overload was beginning to take its toll now, and it would only get worse unless he dealt with it. However, he also had a deadline coming up…when the National Championship would take place. That would be the culmination of all the hard work for the past year, as well as years before leading up to it.

Holden didn't pay a visit to any of the classes today and instead stayed in his office to focus on a few key issues for the big tournament. Specifically, he had to make sure to communicate with his coaches to pass information down to the students on fulfilling their end of the contracts with sponsors. This would be the first time Apex Academy would have its own line of students competing at this prestigious tournament, and it would cost a lot of money to secure their opportunities to travel, lodge, and compete. Holden had gotten sponsorship from Hotel Richissime, thanks to his friend Yuji Shinobu, the hotel manager. His ongoing good relations with Mr. Shinobu resulted in the generous man tapping into his contacts to sponsor Team Apex. In return, Holden's schools would advertise for the popular hotel. The property owners intended on turning the hotel into a chain and opening new hotels in different regions if success continued to rise. Having advertisements throughout the world thanks to Apex Academy ahead of time would be very beneficial to them.

Later in the day, just as Holden got out of his seat to go and grab some coffee, he had yet another unexpected visitor: Diantha. She knocked on the front door and popped her head in, trying not to startle Holden. He nearly leapt in surprise anyway, never expecting to see her face anywhere near his property. "Diantha," he said, while also being essentially shocked. "Never thought I'd see you here."

His reaction coaxed a grin on her face, and she felt more comfortable as a result. "I was wondering if we could speak."

"Certainly." He replied. "I was just on my way to Café Triste to grab some coffee. Would you be willing to speak there? My treat." At the moment, he didn't want Diantha's first impression of his school to be his office where he had tons of papers piled up and no class taking place until later on. That and he needed more coffee badly.

After taking a moment to think it over, she made her decision. "That sounds good." With things settled, the two of them made the walk over to Café Triste, which was only several minutes away. Upon arriving, Holden ordered a large cup of Saffron Tranquility, while Diantha ordered Shalour Oceanic. Once they received their drinks, they sat down at a table and Holden removed the cup lid. "I'd like to ask a favor of you. Please try this. It's the best coffee in the world."

Despite his friendliness, Diantha gave him a funny look. "I'd rather not," she turned him down as politely as possible.

Holden was so enthusiastic over his choice in coffee that he pressed it one more time. "Come on, I insist. You won't be disappointed, I promise."

Somehow, seeing Holden get so excited over his coffee swayed Diantha. "Very well, but just one sip." She took his cup with the lid removed and gently drank from it, getting a good swig of the warm beverage. As Holden looked on, he saw her eyes flicker with the introduction of good taste, and she even took a second drink before placing the cup down. "Holden, I've got to tell you that _is_ really good."

Getting such a compliment from Diantha of all people would have been worthy of Holden's bucket list. "I knew it," he said with a grin. Once he had his beverage back in his possession, he placed the lid back on and resumed enjoying it. "What did you want to speak with me about?"

She drank from her own cup once again, and almost seemed to miss the Saffron Tranquility now that she had switched back. Still, she moved on with what was on her mind. "Holden, you and I have had a…long history. I can't remember a time when I could actually speak with you without fuming. This is all very strange to me, but I hope that we can speak now." Though he understood where Diantha was coming from, Holden didn't quite understand her full intent. Still, he nodded and waited to see what she had to say. "I remember when I first won the Kalos League Championship. I was so happy. I was overjoyed. So naturally, I was surprised when I discovered something very recently…years ago, you beat Lance for the Kanto Regional Championship." Holden was very quiet now as he wondered how Diantha had found out. He'd kept this truth a secret for many years, and so had Lance. This meant that Lance must have finally decided to share the result…with Diantha of all people. Without feeling the need to deny it, Holden nodded, and Diantha got her confirmation. "You won the championship in Kanto, so tell me…why didn't you stay and defend it?"

Holden was unsure of where Diantha's intrigue on this subject originated from, but he participated anyway. "I wanted to accomplish more. I didn't want to stay in one spot like that. I wanted to beat everyone in the world." He paused and couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "Seemed pretty cool to me at the time, anyway."

Diantha raised an eyebrow. "You beat one of the biggest names in the pokémon world at the time, and won the Regional Championship. Yet, you never reported the result…to anyone. And neither did Lance." She took another sip of coffee and grinned in amusement. "So it would appear at a young age you were capable of the higher class of conduct among the world's top trainers. You see, the other regional champions battle each other from time to time, though you will never hear of the results, aside from the National Championship. When we have battles with each other, we do not talk about them to the world. At the highest level, we have a mutual respect for each other, and a respect for the sport we've dedicated our lives too." This code Diantha spoke of made sense to Holden, in a unique sort of way. After all, he'd inadvertently followed it all those years ago after his original battle with Lance. Diantha resumed. "You and I have been enemies longer than I can remember, Holden. Perhaps, it's been long overdue that I speak to your face about how I truly feel about you." Holden was afraid of where this was going, but he had no choice but to endure it. After all, they were both here now so best to get it all out of the way. "You insulted me and my life's journey. I grew up with Ralts as my partner, and over the years, she evolved into Kirlia, and finally Gardevoir. She became powerful because the two of us were dedicated to growing stronger our entire lives. For you to mock such a personal journey of mine…I grew to hate you."

For the first time in his life, Holden felt sympathy for Diantha. His words to her all those years ago had hit hard, and rather than consider just how seriously hurtful his words had been, he simply tried to move on without actually cleaning up the mess. It was no wonder she despised him so much. "I'm sorry," he told her next. "I'm sorry for what I said. I used to think that by talking down to my opponents, I would get into their heads and have the edge over them in competition. Instead, I realize now that I acted like a total ass." He exhaled in relief once he had lightened some of the stress from his plate by reciting the apology. "I suppose you got to punish me in the end. And in the same way, I suppose I deserved all of it."

Diantha sighed as she looked back to those old memories. "It was wrong of me to lash out at you and your academy the way I did. For all my talk of strong morals and representing the Pokémon League well, I lowered myself by seeking to strike back at you for your insults. Now, I am plagued by the feeling of guilt for failing to realize that you've become a good person, motivated by honest and genuine goals in this sport. So on behalf of all that, I apologize to you, Holden Hoffman."

It was a powerful speech, and Holden gave it great respect. "You're one of the best trainers to ever exist. I've always respected you. If I had to attribute the strength of my pokémon from any one person, it would be you." These words of respect caused Diantha to smile, and for the first time, she looked at Holden as an ally rather than a foe.

After the two of them spent some time conversing about their pokémon, as well as the big tournament, Diantha finally decided to address something that had been on her mind for quite a while. "I never see you with Serena anymore. Did you two…break up?" The reminder of that heartache was unpleasant, but Holden did his best to hide it as he nodded in response. Diantha sighed, and tapped her fingers on the table as she took a moment to determine if it would be too sensitive to proceed. "I'm sorry to hear that, Holden. You two were a good team."

Though he agreed with her, Holden wanted to make one thing clear. "It was my fault we broke up. She did nothing wrong."

Diantha looked curious, surprised to hear Holden say it so bluntly. "Did you cheat on her?"

"No," said Holden.

"But…you did something?" He nodded with a sigh, but Diantha wasn't so sure of things. "In my experience, Holden, there are two sides to every story in a relationship. I think there's a good possibility that she did more to strain the relationship than you're willing to admit." Holden grew more serious suddenly, as he appeared to be about to defend Serena, so Diantha raised a hand to put a stop to things. "I apologize. I didn't mean to intrude on your affairs, Holden. I merely felt the need to offer some encouragement on your behalf. If you wish to blame yourself, I'll not stop you."

That made Holden grin and nod in strange appreciation. It also seemed to lead to them wrapping things up and they began to head back to the HQ building. However, after opening the door for Diantha, Holden stepped aside. "I'm gonna walk awhile before I go back to work. I think I could use the jog."

Instead of being offended in any way, Diantha smiled in approval. "Very good, Holden. Thank you for hearing me out, and thank you for introducing me to your favorite coffee. I'll see you again soon. Good luck…with everything." They said farewell and she was off, while Holden took to the sidewalk. There was a lot of work to do…and not just in his office.


	9. Chapter 39

CHAPTER 39.

It was two days before the National Pokémon Championship Series began, and Holden was in a better place of focus. His pokémon were very strong, and he'd spent more time training with the mega stone he'd acquired for Scizor. Having a mega pokémon was a strong addition to his team, but Holden still felt reluctant to use the tool. Winning was important to him, but he remained mostly against the idea of using the mega stone to help power up any of his pokémon. At the very least, he still trained Scizor under the power of the stone, for it was still important to be prepared.

There were a large number of potential foes to be concerned over. As usual, Diantha and her mighty Gardevoir would be competing, so that would still be his biggest threat. Also returning was Dwyer, the arrogant new trainer who'd dominated a number of high level trainers last year. For the first time in years, Lance was competing as well, and the last time he'd entered the tournament, five years ago, he'd won it. Iris was returning too, which meant two of the most prestigious dragon trainers were both attending. A potential showdown between them would be a great treat for fans of their styles. Also returning from the Pokémon League were Wallace, Steven Stone, Koga, and Bruno. Other top performing trainer returns included Yuko, Takako, Proton, and of course, Ash.

The field would be larger than ever before, with a reported 1,024 competitors registered, making it easily the largest pokémon tournament ever to exist. There would be 8 pools once again, and they were filled with 128 combatants in each one, which meant a trainer who won 6 times would make it out of their pool and enter the top 16 bracket. This was no easy feat of course, and there were so many top players that the pools would have multiple big names within them.

Of course, this year the tournament was double elimination, which meant that even when trainers lost a battle, they had a second chance. Therefore, the person who won six battles made it out of their pool in the winner's side, but two players would battle for the chance to escape their pool on the loser's side. Therefore, the top 16 bracket would be 8 trainers from winner's and 8 trainers from loser's. This would make for a thrilling special format for this amazing tournament.

Holden's pokémon team was well-trained in battling, but there was a difference when it came to double elimination. In this format, Holden didn't want to change up things too much, but keeping his team's stamina at high levels was paramount to outlasting the competition. There was a strong possibility he could run into a difficult opponent, and that also made it possible to take a loss logically, rather than driving his pokémon to fight into pure exhaustion. Losing a match was now a potentially useful outcome, for the good of winning the marathon format this year. However, with all that said, Holden still didn't want to lose any matches either way, for it went against how he always trained.

The classes at Apex Academy were canceled for the day, but Holden met with all his students and gave them some final words of advice and encouragement for the next day. Just from this school alone, there were 3 students traveling out to compete for their first ever National Championship. It was an exciting experience to look forward too, though they were all young and nervous. Holden assured them he would be nearby to support them as much as possible, and even when he wasn't around, the coaches would be available as well. It helped the students tremendously knowing they were a team, and they all had each other's backs. Everyone was in a good place going into the battles.

In fact, the only person who seemed to be feeling low was Holden. He remained stuck thinking about Serena, and all the stress in the recent months. At the very least, after this tournament, he would have the chance to take a break…or so he hoped. Feeling this way made him almost want to lose on purpose, so that he could avoid the pressure of being a league champion. It was an ugly feeling, and he swore at himself anytime it crossed his mind. No matter what, he could _never_ intentionally seek to lose, as it was an insult to everything he stood for in competition. He had to fight to win at all times.

The tournament was going to take four days to complete, and the festival was going to begin tomorrow on a Wednesday. For the entire week, travelers would be flocking into Goldenrod City in the Johto region, so the city was going to be brimming with activity. There were so many people coming in that a large number of arrivals were even staying in Azalea Town, which was south from the major city and the tournament grounds.

Later in the evening, Holden took his friends out for dinner at Sushi High Roller, the best sushi spot in Lumiose. Joining him that night were Yonny, the head coach from the school, Berto and Jack, who were the two assistant coaches, Roxy, and the three students from Apex Academy Kalos who were competing in the championship: their names were Tommy, Shawn, and Peter. Everyone was in good spirits, and the rounds of sushi were a great treat for the crew from Apex Academy Kalos.

As Holden sat there with his friends, both old and new, he felt happy for the first time in months. His problems and worries were finally at ease long enough for him to appreciate the good things he had in his life tonight. There were people smiling and laughing at dinner with him, and he'd done his part to contribute to their happiness. It was more rewarding than anything money could buy. It was enough to heal the painful wounds he'd suffered…at least for now. With people counting on him to coach, as well as compete, he had a clear purpose ahead of him. With that in mind, he was ready to do his best.

When dinner was over, and everyone began to head back home, Holden decided to walk down the street to Rouge Plaza. It was lit up beautifully with the night sky, and there were people walking around, while others were sitting and enjoying the sights. Somehow, even after living here for almost a year, Holden had never simply walked and appreciated the beauty of this place.

After spending some time there, Holden walked down south and hit up Centrico Plaza next, which was south of Prism Tower, and being it was a fancy part of town, it was even more beautifully lit than the previous spot. Holden couldn't help but admire it, for all its beauty and serenity spoke to him tonight.

Then of course, he thought about Serena. She really was a vital component in his life, and he'd messed it up. There was no getting around it for him, but now he possessed vision in what to do about it. Once he finished competing in the tournament, he would seek her out and make things right again. Perhaps, she'd never take him back, but at least he would have tried, and he'd find peace in that if that's what she wished for.

Everything was set now, and it was time to go for it.


	10. Chapter 40

CHAPTER 40.

The last time Holden had been to Goldenrod City was when he'd run the one-month class for trainers next door to the Radio Tower. Today, that suite was the location of the full-time-running Apex Academy Johto. A lot had happened since his last time here, but there was no time to reminisce on it now.

It would take a while for everyone involved with the team to gather out here for the competition, but Holden planned on getting everyone together for one period of time. Since they'd be arriving at different times throughout the day, he reached out to them and announced a gathering at eight o'clock in the evening at the Global Terminal, which was the city's westernmost point. When evening fell, Holden arrived early with traveling mates from the Kalos region. Around eight o'clock, more people began to show up. Among them were Ash, Kirk, Turner, Erico, and Kelly. In addition, coaches and students from the schools in the other regions showed up, and they began to meet with each other, many of them for the first time. In total, there were 13 students from Kanto, 4 from Johto, 2 from Sinnoh, 2 from Hoenn, 1 from Unova, and 3 from Kalos, making it a total of 25 trainers from Apex Academy entering the competition. Holden would be competing as well, making the number 26. In addition to all that, there were 30 more students who'd traveled all this way just to join the festival, as well as watch the pokémon battles.

After spending an hour socializing, Kelly took care of the group photographs. She made sure to get over a dozen good pictures of the school's members, and when it was over, they were all clapping and cheering. Holden was pleased with his team, and proud of all that had been accomplished, especially in the last year. This was only the beginning of many great things to come for Apex Academy.

Eventually, Ash found an opportunity to speak alone with Holden. "You still haven't talked to Serena at all?" Ash brought up.

Holden could only sigh in disappointment. "Not yet."

It didn't surprise Ash, though he seemed sad to hear it as well. "She's going to be here during the championship. She'll be busy making appearances for her work, though."

Sensing what Ash was saying passively, Holden held his hands up in assurance. "I won't bother her during the event. You can let her know that."

Ash shrugged awkwardly, hating being in this position, but he nodded anyway. "Sorry, Holden. Guess it's better anyway, since we all need to focus on the competition."

"It is," said Holden in agreement.

Once everyone got in their goodbyes for the evening, students and trainers began to return to their respective hotels. Most of them were staying at Hotel Rising, which was managed by a man named Jonathon Shinta, who was a cousin of Yuji Shinobu. Unlike Hotel Richissime back in Lumiose, Rising was far less popular and successful, but that was about to change. Though the hotels were all booked on account of the National Championship being in town, Holden was advertising for this hotel so that it would receive more positive attention than it would have before. No doubt, this was an expensive order with so many students coming from out of town. In fact, some of the rooms were going to be housing up to four students, since the rooms were in such demand with the tournament in town.

Mr. Shinta was much younger than his older cousin, Mr. Shinobu, but he was equally hospitable. He met with Holden and the process of checking in all the guests was underway. It took nearly thirty minutes to handle the entire thing, but Holden took care of it with some help from Berto. It was remarkable how valuable a friend Berto had become to Holden now, when at first he hadn't been able to stand being around his former roommate. Times had changed quite a bit. Soon enough, everything was taken care of, and everyone went to their rooms for the night.

It was late in the evening now, and Holden went down to the hotel lounge, where he found Berto and Roxy sitting on one of the long couches. "Holden. Get your butt over here!" Berto called out, lifting the glass of whiskey in his left hand. "We've been waiting for you." There was a trace of drunkenness in his voice, but he seemed stable enough for it to not be an issue. Roxy was as still as always, though she had a book in her hands, which caught Holden's attention.

"Keep it down," said Holden, trying to remind Berto that they were in a place of peace and quiet. His words seemed to work, because Berto lowered the glass and simmered down somewhat. When Holden took a seat next to Roxy, she slid a few feet away, giving herself more distance so she could avoid a potential conversation. Holden let loose a grin as he took the hint. Instead, he addressed Berto. "Thanks for everything, Berto. You've been a great help. I can't imagine what things would be like for Apex Academy Kalos without you."

The kind words caused Berto to lower his glass of whiskey and place it down gently on the glass table top. "You're a good man, Holden. I see that now. You may just be the right one for the job you've got."

With that out of the way, Holden brought up an important subject concerning his teammates. "This is double elimination format. We all need to remember to conserve our pokémon as much as possible so they don't get too worn out from the battles. For example, if you have a grass type and win the first battle, your opponent may counter with a fire type. It could be possible for your grass type to win even then, if it fights hard enough, but it could wear out your pokémon extra to add the stress of fighting like that. Instead, don't hesitate to switch pokémon comfortably, and do so to keep them from being worn out. There's no need to fight for clean sweeps in this contest; instead, you must fight to win by using as little stress as possible. In addition to the tournament being double elimination, it's also going to be the largest pokémon tournament ever held, and you'll need to win many battles in a short period of time."

Though she always kept to herself, Roxy appeared to be listening closely, and she nodded when Holden was done. Berto noticed it and laughed a bit. "I still can't believe you're a pokémon trainer, Roxy. Why don't you ever show us your pokémon? When do you even train them? I've never seen it."

The girl with thick glasses opened her book and buried her face in it to shut down any additional questions. Holden and Berto both laughed and left her alone. Even Holden took a glass of whiskey and tried it for the first time. It was stronger, especially compared to wine, and Holden set it aside after just four sips. Eventually, Berto picked it up and finished it off himself. The three friends gradually grew more tired and began to zone out as the night wore on. Even Roxy was falling asleep after enough time had passed.

Finally, Holden realized it was nearly midnight, and he stretched his arms. He tried to wake up Berto, but it was useless. He laughed and motioned to the hotel staff, requesting some help. While two of the staff attempted to revive Berto, Holden went over to wake up Roxy. The quiet girl's eyes fluttered awake when she woke up, apparently not realizing where she was at first. Holden calmed her down quietly, though, and she regained her senses. It was strange seeing her look afraid, even if only for a few moments. Holden offered to carry her book for her and walk her back to the room with Berto. She lifted her glasses up to rub her eyes sleepily, and then followed Holden's request. Though it took some time, Berto got up and clumsily plodded after the two of them back toward his room, which he was sharing with Roxy. Once they were both in their room, Holden left them to go back to his own, and he plopped down on the mattress. From there, he stared up at the ceiling and thought about the impending pokémon battles. He was excited, but also nervous. This time around, he didn't have to fight with his school's future directly on the line, but it may as well be with how much responsibility he had. A strong performance, or even victory, would provide even more support for his academy's future, but a weaker performance could hurt its reputation. There was never a battle where victory was unimportant.


	11. Chapter 41

CHAPTER 41.

The big day was underway, and the festival was nothing short of spectacular. There were tons of people crowding over to the grounds, and they encompassed all age groups. The opening ceremony was like removing the cap from a bottle of soda after shaking it, and it burst as the masses roared with excitement.

Holden led his brigade to the grounds and made sure everyone knew where they needed to be. By now, the pools had been determined, and coaches were going to be available at all times to provide support for the students. Yonny, Turner, Berto, Erico, Kirk, and more were all going to be handling that role on behalf of Apex. Meanwhile, Holden was the number one seed for the entire tournament, and was competing in the first pool. Kelly had to compete today as well, over in Pool 4, but both of them would be close enough to provide support between matches. Ash was Holden's regular coach, and he was in Pool 5. Since his matches didn't commence until the next day, he was fully available to coach his friends.

It was a relief for Holden to be able to coach any of his students competing tomorrow. Even so, it would difficult for him to get away from reporters and fans eager to have time with him. It was a lot to think about, but he was very focused on victory, so these issues were lower in his mind. The biggest priority was still winning the tournament.

Eventually, Berto revealed that Roxy was battling in Pool 3. She appeared unhappy when he spoiled the secret, but Holden made sure she knew people from the team would be available to coach her if she wanted. However, she quickly shook her head and refused any such offer, electing to do things the way she always preferred them: by herself. It wasn't in the sense that she felt she never needed help from others, but rather, because she always seemed uncomfortable with other people around her in general.

At one point, Holden finished up an interview when someone approached him. "Holden Hoffman?" the young man called him by name, causing Holden to look over. The man had a neatly trimmed goatee and darker skin. He wore a unique beanie on his head with what resembled a creature's face on it. "I've wanted to meet you for quite some time. We were neighbors back in Saffron City."

With that origin, Holden looked closely at him, eager to try and recognize him. "That's really cool, though I don't think I've ever seen you before."

The man offered a handshake, which Holden accepted. "My name is Habs," he introduced himself. "We went to school together years ago, but really I saw you from when I used to watch you compete on TV. I just thought it was really cool that someone so close to where I grew up became a National Champion. I'm competing today as well."

Holden enjoyed hearing the story. "Good for you, Habs. What pool are you in?"

He took a moment to remember. "Pool 2. What about you?"

"Pool 1."

"Top seed, nice," said Habs. "I'll be watching and rooting for you." Shortly after, it dawned on Holden just who Habs really was. He was actually a pokémon trainer _and_ an actor in movies, though Holden rarely had time to watch any. Even so, it was a unique experience meeting someone who was a celebrity somewhere besides the world of pokémon battles.

Holden shook his new friend's hand one more time. "I'll keep an eye on you in Pool 3 as well."

After meeting Habs, Holden returned to the waiting area for Pool 1. Other participants in his pool included Proton, Marigold, and Sabrina. It set the stage for a potentially interesting scenario since Holden hadn't battled her since back when he first won a gym badge from her. In addition, he had attempted to make peace with her months ago, after years of feuding, and now there was a strong chance he would run into her once again today. It remained to be seen how things would go if the two of them had any interactions.

Sure enough, Holden's battles were showcases of his tremendous ability, as he comfortably won. His pokémon were so high in level compared to the competition that they rarely exerted much energy to achieve victory. A rematch with Marigold was slightly more interesting, since the foe surrendered the game early against Holden last year. This time around, no such thing occurred, and Marigold's team fought boldly, though the end result was yet another victory for Holden.

Finally, Sabrina stood on the opposite side from him, and their battle began. Hoping to possibly earn some of her respect, Holden sent out his Alakazam to battle against Sabrina's, making for an intense battle of psychic versus psychic. After several minutes of even power, Holden's Alakazam finally wore out Sabrina's enough to force a submission. The battle carried on, but Holden's Snorlax won it for him in the end. He was about to walk over to Sabrina to offer a handshake, when to his surprise, she was already walking up to him. As always, she looked stern and unhappy, but she nodded her head and said the words, "It was a good match." With that said, she turned around and walked away, leaving Holden gleaming with satisfaction. He'd never gotten any form of respect from Sabrina before, and in his eyes, that was the nicest thing she'd ever said to him.

Holden's toughest battle of the day was against Proton. Whoever won the battle would enter the top 16 bracket on the winner's side. Holden began the battle with Scizor, while Proton lead out with Tyranitar. It was a fierce battle, but Scizor stayed strong, enduring some powerful rock and ground attacks from the beast, until he landed an iron head attack which ended the duel. Next, Proton sent out Sableye, who wore out the already exhausted Scizor, though Holden was quick to withdraw him. Next, Holden sent out Lapras, who unleashed aggressive surf and hydro pumps attacks to make short work of Sableye. Finally, Proton sent out Blastoise, and tried to win in a duel of water types. Blastoise attacked with physical attacks, which did a number on Lapras throughout the matchup. Holden was close to switching her out, but a glance into Lapras's eyes encouraged him to let her finish the task. Sure enough, Lapras used thunderbolt, her special weapon against other water types. That was too much for Blastoise to endure, and Proton was shocked as well, wondering how Lapras was capable of learning an electric attack like that. Thanks to the unexpected ability, Holden won his pool, and was now entered in the top 16. Everything was good so far in his corner.

Kelly's matches in Pool 4 were fierce. Her team was larger and stronger now than ever before, so she was ready to take on her challengers. She won her first few matches with little trouble, but met her first difficult battle on the fourth one. She was battling against Assunta from the Kanto region, and Kelly was the underdog. Assunta's Rhyperior got the first knockout over Kelly's Stantler, but then her newest addition got a nice rebound: Lapras. She'd trained a Lapras inspired by Holden's powerful water pokémon, and it was easy to see why. Lapras beat Assunta's Rhyperior and even Venusaur, thanks to his ice attacks. Assunta's Venomoth overwhelmed Lapras, but Kelly sent out Arcanine next and had the severe type advantage, which was enough to score a flamethrower victory. Eventually, Kelly had earned her way to the outer rim of the bracket, but now she had to go against Lance. She followed Holden's advice and saved Lapras for her second pick, to help conserve his energy to use ice attacks against Lance's dragons. However, Lance's Dragonite was supremely powerful, and he simply overwhelmed Kelly's entire team by himself. Kelly got a handshake of respect from the caped pokémon master, and she was satisfied with her winner's run in bracket. After that, she battled Tito, a powerful trainer who was a friend of Habs, and who had also lost to Lance earlier. The victor would enter the top 16 bracket on the loser's side. Tito had a Dragonite on his team, which was his strongest fighter, and Kelly struggled against that kind of power. Though she still made it a close battle, Kelly was defeated, and her run in the tournament came to an end.

When it was over, Kelly was close to crying, but she fought hard to resist the urge. Holden noticed her burden as he walked over to her, and he put an arm around her shoulder. "Come with me," he said to her. He guided Kelly away from the crowds and over out in the field, where they were not near the public. "We're alone now. Go ahead and let it out if you need," he told her.

Kelly wanted to avoid crying after Holden's words, but instead the opposite occurred, and she covered her face. "I was doing so well. I can't believe it. I just needed to beat that last guy, and then I'd be in the top 16. So close…" she said with sobs as she trailed off.

After giving her some time, Holden urged her to sit down on the grass, and then he sat down in front of her. "You did great, Kelly. You fought with everything you had, and made a deep run. I'm proud of you."

Once she cleared away most of the tears, Kelly laughed in embarrassment at her current state. "You've always been kind to me, Holden, but I think it's time you stopped lying to me. I'm never going to be strong enough to win the championship. I don't want you to keep on supporting me if I'm going nowhere."

Though it was painful to see her like this, Holden was focused on addressing her words. "I've _never_ lied to you, Kelly. I don't lie to people, especially not ones who are serious about their training. You want to become a stronger trainer, and the path will always be an uphill battle. Even those who become the strongest trainer in the world have to battle to defend their title from the next challengers. You may be climbing for a long time, perhaps even years, but you need to _keep climbing_. And I'm not just telling you that because it's some cheesy metaphor, I'm saying it because that is what Apex Academy stands for. The apex is the highest point, and many people never even reach it. I want to see you, as well as all my students, keep climbing until you reach the apex. Always train, level up, improve, and mature. You'll cheer, laugh, cry, and many more things along this journey, but there's a good reason you've come this far. And I think I know what that reason is: You're still battling because you love doing this. It brings you joy."

Kelly smiled and wished she could show Holden how much she appreciated his words of wisdom. "Thank you," she said graciously, and Holden climbed to his feet. When he was standing, he leaned down and offered a hand to help Kelly up. She took it, and returned back to her feet again. She was going to follow his advice and keep climbing.

When Pool 3 took place, Roxy was off to a strong start. Her battles were going well for her as she progressed through her bracket. The unfortunate thing was Dwyer was also in this pool, and he was on a killing spree. His pokémon never suffered any defeats as he taunted and mocked his foes relentlessly during the contests. One of his opponents even quit early, disgusted with the classless behavior from Dwyer. Eventually, the referees came in to speak with Dwyer, and they were going to be issuing him fines for his unsportsmanlike conduct. That only seemed to make him more vicious, but at least it meant he would pay for his fouls. Eventually, Dwyer was up against Roxy, and Holden was present to bear witness to the battle. It was hard to sit there and watch the quietest trainer ever go up against the loudest and most obnoxious. Ultimately, Dwyer overwhelmed Roxy's team with a dominant victory, and he laughed and mocked his opponent's defeat. Though she glared back at the rude trainer, Roxy didn't stick around, and she walked off the field with her head down.

All Holden could think about was that he couldn't wait to see this man lose. When it was over, Dwyer made it out of his pool on the winner's side, while Roxy made it out on the loser's, which was an amazing accomplishment for her. Though she'd suffered a loss, she was still in the tournament with a chance to win it all.

Pool 2 had very little in the realm of excitement compared to the others. Diantha dispatched everybody she fought with relative ease, and even seemed mostly distant as her attention was mainly on Dwyer and his trouble making. Another person who was in this pool was Jasmine, and Holden tried his best not to watch her matches. As he thought back to the trouble she'd caused him, he wanted to hate her, only he couldn't. Jasmine was just another person seeking things in life, and if anything, Holden had been the one who hadn't given her the respect she deserved. Meanwhile, Habs was also in this pool, and his team was on a role. He was known for his Electabuzz, considering how powerful he was for a pokémon that chose not to fully evolve. Habs ultimately lost to Diantha, though he managed to knock out her Tyrantrum with his Empoleon, which got a strong reaction from the fans in attendance. Diantha naturally won her pool, while Habs found redemption by making it out on the loser's side. Holden quickly found out he was more than just an actor, as his pokémon training abilities were very commendable.

The battles for the day came to an end, and the results revealed one half of the top 16 finalists: Holden, Diantha, Lance, and Dwyer in winner's, and Habs, Tito, Roxy, and Proton in loser's. Things were going to heat up again tomorrow, when it would be time for Pools 5 through 8 to go down.


	12. Chapter 42

CHAPTER 42.

When the next morning had arrived, Holden was enjoying his coffee in the company of Habs and Tito, the two competitors and friends he'd met the day before. None of them had any matches to attend today, so they could relax in that regard. However, Holden still had friends and teammates who were competing, so he needed to be there for them very soon. For now, he had the chance to enjoy his favorite coffee as he rose with the day. "You guys fought well yesterday," Holden said. "Congrats on making it to the top 16."

Tito nodded in gratitude as he drank his coffee. He was a bit younger than the other two, but he had plenty of experience battling, being that he started very early in his life. Tito was tall and had a small goatee, and his hair style was a faux hawk. Habs and Tito had met each other back in Saffron City years ago, and they shared a passion for battles which led to them maintaining a friendship over time.

One thing Habs knew that Holden didn't was that Tito had never competed in a big tournament before. "You might have actually stood a chance to win," said Habs. "Except for the fact that _I'm_ still in it."

"Your team is _way_ too weak," Tito countered. "Who uses Electabuzz in the big championship?"

Habs was just smiling as he explained his stance with confidence. "If Electabuzz is strong enough to win battles for me, he doesn't need to evolve. Look how far I've gotten, after all."

After watching the two of them trade friendly jabs with one another, Holden gave his input. "You two both make interesting points. I've stuck with my team of six my entire career, dedicating to training them to be as strong as possible. Even so, my team is completely comprised of pokémon from the Kanto region, so I never branched out and diversified my team. Perhaps, that could be a limitation in the eyes of some. I also needed to use the mega stone to win it in the end last year, though I've always been opposed to it."

"That was a brilliant play," Tito insisted. "You should use whatever helps you win as long as it's not against the rules. So I'd say that was pretty justified. I use mega stones for my team too." When looking at both Tito and Habs, Holden could see the differences in their styles. Habs relied on a stylish team who partnered well with his heart and character. Tito spent more time in his career seeking out a rare but potentially mighty team that most people would consider ideal. Ultimately, it was Habs who had been a regular competitor, while Tito battled pokémon merely as a hobby on the side. However, now they were both competing in the most prestigious pokémon tournament in the world.

"What about you, Holden?" Habs asked. "Why do you have two normal types on your team?"

Though he couldn't help but laugh at the remark, Holden leaned over to glance at the orbs of his team. "I gathered this team during my journey through Kanto to collect all the gym badges. When I found a pokémon I felt was passionate, I vowed to train them for my entire life. Each time, it was one of the six I have on my roster now. Once I got six of them, I stayed dedicated to them ever since. That's why they're so powerful now. We've trained together for over a decade."

"That's pretty impressive," said Tito. "You could totally win the title again this year, you know. You're still in winner's."

"We _all_ have a good chance," Holden said confidently as he rose from his seat. He held a fist forward, and the other two responded to it. Soon, they were going to have intense battles, possibly against each other. It was an exciting and unique feeling to be in this position in the competition.

Pools 5 through 8 were action packed, much to the delight of those in attendance. Holden had to spend most of the day spectating and coaches for the battles his students were in, so he was running around constantly trying to keep up with things.

In Pool 5, Ash had his matches, along with Tommy from Apex Kalos, so Holden began his coaching there. The top seeded trainer in this pool was Iris, and she demolished her competition right off the bat. Unfortunately, Tommy ended up facing her in his third match, and she ran right through him. Ash was successful in his run as well, until facing off against Iris in the final match for winner's. Though Ash put on a good showing, Iris was too much and she sent Ash down to the loser's bracket. Not one to let a loss discourage him, Ash picked right back up where he left off and redeemed himself with a victory that catapulted him into the top 16 on the loser's side.

Pool 6 saw even more action. Steven Stone and Wallace were both in the same bracket, which was bad news for the rest of the combatants, including Peter from Apex Kalos. Though the competitors fought their hardest, the two regional champions won every battle, until they faced off in the winner's final match, where Steven Stone came out the winner. It didn't slow down Wallace at all, though, who easily won his match after that and exited the pool on the loser's side.

Pool 7 was far less terrifying than the previous one, with Yuko and Bruno as the top seeds. Even so, they were very powerful trainers and they were winning all their battles. There was one trainer who rose up to rival them, and it was Rory, the electric and fire specialist who'd placed very high in last year's tournament. Rory ended up facing Yuko in his sixth match, and the close battle ended with Yuko's Eevee evolution team securing the win. After that, Yuko beat Bruno in the winner's final, using primarily Espeon's psychic abilities to severely damage Bruno's team of fighting types. Eventually, Bruno faced off against Rory, and the young upstart trainer managed to defeat the Elite Four member thanks to his strong efforts, and thus Rory made it out on loser's side.

Pool 8 was considered the weakest pool of the tournament, with only Koga being a seasoned competitor, being that he was from the Elite Four. Harley had gotten seeded very high thanks to her strong placing in last year's tournament, but she wasn't receiving a lot of attention. However, this ended up benefiting her, because Harley's Aegislash, Krookodile, and Abomasnow were high levels, and they brought her to victory numerous times. Even Shawn from Apex Kalos fell to Harley's team. Harley's growing momentum carried her to an upset victory over Koga in the winner's final match, though it had been a close battle. After that, Koga won and exited his pool on the loser's side.

With all the matches from the pools completed, the final 16 competitors had finally been determined. On the winner's side, there was Holden, Harley, Lance, Iris, Diantha, Yuko, Dwyer, and Steven Stone. On the loser's side, there was Proton, Koga, Tito, Ash, Habs, Rory, Roxy, and Wallace. The winner's top 8 would be reseeded, which would make things interesting between the big names who'd earned that spot. The loser's top 8 was reseeded as well, and Habs and Tito were hoping they wouldn't end up battling each other right away, but they had no say in that decision.

The festival carried on into the night, and everyone was having a great time, regardless of match results. Holden's students had all fought their hardest, though none of them had made it out of their pools, which remained a very challenging hurdle to overcome. Holden hadn't lost a single battle, so most of the praise went to him, but he made sure that Kelly received attention for her strong run, considering she'd been one victory away from making it out of her pool. Of course, Ash had made it out of his pool as well, but he wasn't with the group at the moment, since he was off with his other friends, including Serena. Holden made sure to never pressure Ash over their shared friendship, though it was hard for him to resist the temptation of requesting Ash to send a message to Serena. Holden knew it wouldn't be right, though, unless he spoke to Serena himself in person.

For now, Holden was focused on the tournament, and on the opponents who stood ahead of him. He was expected to be the number 1 seed, and most likely, Harley would end up the number 8 seed, which meant he'd face her first. That would be a rematch from last year, where Holden had swept her entire team using only his Lapras. As he considered his tactics, leading out with Lapras again would be a good mind trick, but he also felt it would be distasteful, and something more along the lines that Dwyer would do. Just the thought of being similar to Dwyer made Holden want to avoid that path.

One thing Holden knew very well was that winning the championship would be even tougher this year than the last, at least in terms of overall competition. This year, Lance was a major force in the bracket, and Dwyer had become significantly more powerful than before. On top of all that, Diantha was still in it too, and Holden had used up his big trick to beat her last year. This time around, she'd be ready for him and his Mega Scizor.

It was late out, but the students didn't want to end the day. Holden was tired, but refused to leave them, even if his assistant coaches were there to supervise them. This experience was important to them, especially since most of the students had never traveled so far from home like this. Days like this one would shape the way they carried on in life, and pokémon battles were not just about the fighting aspect: they also led to environments where people came together to have fun and make friends. This was a vital component to this lifestyle, and Holden was not about to deny it from these students merely because he was tired.

Once it got really late, Berto finally convinced Holden to go to bed. The coaches were more than capable of keeping the students entertained during the festival, and Holden needed his rest for the big day tomorrow. Day 3 of the National Championship would run through winner's and loser's bracket, finishing most of the battles. Day 4 would be the final four competitors, and would determine the next National Champion.


	13. Chapter 43

CHAPTER 43.

Things got underway quickly the next day. The bleachers were all full as massive numbers of fans gathered to cheer on their favorite trainers. This tournament had gotten a major following, proving so far how successful the special format was, in spite of any previous concerns. And it wasn't over yet.

The first match of the day was Holden against Harley. Though the young woman had a lot of momentum in her battles yesterday, she'd lost most of it by now, especially up against the man who defeated her a year ago. She sent out her team and attacked, but her moves were too predictable. Holden's Scizor danced around the offense and timed his counters effectively, until he was well ahead in the battle. After Scizor took out Aegislash and Krookodile, Holden switched over to Lapras to take on Harley's Abomasnow, and secured the victory. It was a good start for him in the tournament.

For the second match, the fans were given a special treat, for it was Lance versus Iris. This was the battle of the two greatest dragon trainers in the world, and a dream matchup for the fans to bear witness too. Lance started with Dragonite, while Iris led out with Salamence. The two dragons battled gloriously, arousing huge cheers from the spectators. Beams of special attacks were launched whenever the two dragons were at a distance, but they always flew in close and traded physical blows back and forth with each other. Both dragons fought so wildly that they eventually collapsed to the ground, and the end result was a draw. Lance and Iris took a moment to appreciate their pokémon before calling them back and resuming the battle. Next, Lance chose Flygon and Iris went with Haxorus. This time, the duel was much quicker, and Haxorus landed a critical hit from a dragon tail attack, which caught Flygon diving in. Lance was irritated with himself for underestimating Iris, but he intended to make up for it fast. His last pick was Hydreigon, and his monster was a force to be reckoned with. Despite Haxorus being very powerful, he eventually fell against the dark type dragon. That left Iris with her final pick, and she went with Lapras. She'd wisely saved this type advantage for the closing duel, and it appeared as though Lance was going to suffer a loss. However, Hydreigon used dark type attacks to disorient Lapras first, preventing the water and ice pokémon from aiming her ice beams. Eventually, Hydreigon had openings to attack and he went in with Outrage, and got the knockout. In the battle of dragon trainers, Lance had come out on top, and the fans gave him a standing ovation.

After a short break to let the audience enjoy the spectacle just witnessed, the third match of the day was Diantha against Yuko. Unlike the first two battles, this one wasn't close at all. Diantha started off with a fresh Gardevoir, and used her mega stone to boost her. Mega Gardevoir eliminated all three of Yuko's picks without any issue, and thus Diantha moved forward.

The fourth match was Dwyer versus Steven Stone. The trademark Metagross was Steven's lead as always, and having expected it, Dwyer went with Scizor. The duel was a wild one, and Scizor delivered a lot of damage before Metagross ended up beating him. Dwyer sent out Slaking next, and his monstrous normal type finished off Metagross with one hit. It turned out that while Slaking was slow with his attacks, he was still regularly using bulk up to increase his strength. Thanks to this tactic, the battle went downhill for Steven Stone from there. He used Aggron first, but Slaking had fighting type moves, such as hammer arm, and he landed them. Even with his slow pace of attacks, Slaking got a quick knockout once his moves landed. Steven Stone sent out Skarmory for his last pick, hoping the steel and flying type combo would put a stop to Slaking, but he was wrong again. Dwyer's Slaking used hyperbeam and even Skarmory's steel body couldn't endure, and the battle was over, with Dwyer winning in dominating fashion.

That was the end of the first round of the day, and now the stage was set for Holden to battle Lance, while Diantha would battle Dwyer. As thrilling as these matches were, they would not be held until later in the day, because first the loser's bracket was going to proceed forward.

In the loser's bracket, Koga beat Proton 3-1, Tito beat Ash 3-2, Habs beat Rory 3-2, and Wallace beat Roxy 3-2. When the rounds were over, Holden felt bittersweet over the results, being that two of his friends had succeeded, while the other two ended up losing. That didn't change the fact that everyone who made it this far had placed incredibly high considering the size of the field. Being that there were 1,024 trainers competing this year, it was a very commendable result.

After that, the matches were mostly very close. Steven Stone edged Koga 3-2, Tito beat Yuko 3-2, Iris beat Habs 3-2, and Wallace beat Harley 3-1. The main takeaway from those matches was that Habs had a very strong showing against heavily-favored Iris, though he still fell short. Also, Tito was in his first big tournament, yet he was outplacing many of the veterans, even getting farther than his friend, Habs. However, up next, Tito's run came to an end, losing to Steven Stone 3-2. Meanwhile, Iris won against Wallace 3-2 as well, resuming her run for redemption.

At this point, it was time for the winner's matches to resume. First up would be Holden versus Lance, which was the most anticipated battle of the entire tournament based on fan surveys. The crowds were louder than they'd been all day as the two legendary Kanto region trainers shook hands with one another.

As he looked around at the adoring fans, Lance developed a smirk, and then he returned his gaze to Holden. "You've come a long way since we last battled, Holden."

Remembering their sole battle years ago for the Kanto Regional Championship, Holden grinned in return. "So have you." Now that their original battle was the subject, Holden couldn't resist asking another question. "I'm surprised you told Diantha. I never thought you'd tell anyone."

Lance shook his head, though he still smiled as they reminisced on it. "I assume you never told a soul either?" When Holden shook his head to confirm it, Lance held his hands together in front of him, pressing his palms together. "After you became notorious, I had no intention of confessing to the Pokémon League that I had fallen in battle to you when you were just a kid. But after seeing how much you've matured, I felt they deserved to know the truth, especially when you became the National Champion." He flicked his cape in a striking pose, which elicited cheers from the audience. "It's about time I showed you just how much I've discovered over the years. I assure you, you won't be disappointed."

Holden posed by getting into a southpaw stance with his fists up toward his adversary. "I have a lot I want to show you as well."

Once they picked their starters, they returned to their positions and the battle began. Despite his advice previously to Kelly, Holden led out with Lapras against Lance's Dragonite, instead of saving her for the middle of the battle. Things were explosive right out the gate. Dragonite used agility and moved quickly, doing everything he could to avoid Lapras's ice beams. Eventually, Dragonite was confident enough to attempt some attacks, and he started off with dragon rage. The blast of blue fire streamed down at Lapras, but she deflected most of it with a surf attack. Lapras ate a couple blasts of dragon pulse from Dragonite, but she endured. Eager to switch over to the more surprising techniques once the dragon appeared to be slowing down, Lapras went for Blizzard. The storm of ice was effective, even with Dragonite trying to dodge, and it overwhelmed Lance's signature pokémon and dropped him from the sky. With her foe down, Lapras moved in to land an ice beam but Lance called Dragonite back. It was a strong start for Holden's team. For his second pick, Lance went with Haxorus, and he moved forward to attack quickly, before Lapras would have time to use a special attack. The tactic paid off, and Haxorus landed a dragon claw which knocked Lapras out to even the battle. Holden set out Venusaur next, and the plant pokémon commenced in using his special grass abilities to slow down Haxorus. The dragon pokémon tried very hard to attack viciously, but Venusaur kept on showering him with stun spore and sleep powder, which wore his foe down. Haxorus had wasted too much energy going for physical attacks, and Lance began to order special attacks from a distance. Even so, Venusaur was already catching his foe with leech seed, even without Holden's commands, giving him the edge in speed. Haxorus managed to land dragon pulse a couple times on Venusaur, though the plant pokémon endured the hits, while Haxorus finally fainted from the draining grass moves. Lance picked Salamence last, who went with another blitz attack and successfully downed Venusaur without taking any additional damage. Holden had one pick left, and he went with Scizor. He figured it would do no good trying to trade long distance blows against Salamence's firepower, so Scizor's skill and precision in close combat attacks would be the best method of winning. Salamence was firing away rapidly with dragon pulse, as Lance wanted to catch Scizor during his motions. Scizor moved fast with agility and double team, avoiding the worst of his foe's special attacks. However, Salamence got lucky at one point, and one of his dragon pulse beams connected with the actual Scizor and sent him to the ground. Victory was nearly in his grasp, and Lance ordered Salamence to charge in and attack with giga impact. Just as Salamence reached the downed Scizor, it faded away and he realized at that moment it had been a decoy after all, though it seemed impossible. Scizor had an opening, and he dove straight down onto Salamence with metal claw and scored the knockout. In a sudden move, Holden had defeated Lance, and sent the crowd into a wild frenzy.

For the first time all day, Lance was emotional as anger ran through him. He couldn't believe he'd fallen for Holden's trick, and he was hard on himself for it. After all, Iris had nearly beaten him with intelligent tactics as well, and he realized he'd have to wise up at this stage in the tournament. Though he was bitter at defeat, Lance returned Holden's handshake and even held his arm up in a show of respect. Holden felt very good with this victory, as it was one of the most significant battle wins he'd ever achieved in his life. Not only that, he was now in the top 3 for the tournament.

"That was a clever trick," Lance commended Holden. "You'll have to show me how you managed such a thing."

Holden laughed and nodded respectfully. "I will, I will." There was no bad blood, though, and they were both still determined to move forward. Even with this loss, Lance was still in the tournament, and he wasn't going to slow down.

Up next was the emotional battle between Dwyer and Diantha. These two had never fought before, being that this was Dwyer's second tournament ever, but she knew him well enough to know his team was extremely powerful. As soon as they began, Dwyer shouted out some rude words. "Just stop wasting our time and pick Gardevoir already. You know it's your only way to win against me!" Diantha's emotions escalated as she heard his words, but she took deep breaths and regained focus. Her opponent loved to talk trash, as a means of psychological warfare, but she wasn't going to let it deter her. Up first, Diantha sent out Goodra and Dwyer chose Dragonite. In the battle of dragon versus dragon, Dragonite came out on top, and Dwyer's laughter continued to rattle the Kalos Regional Champion. Next, Diantha sent out Aurorus, and made short work of the Dragonite using a blizzard attack. For his second pick, Dwyer went with Slaking, and he tried his powerful but slow physical attacks to take on Aurorus. This turned out to be bait, because when Diantha ordered Aurorus to strike while Slaking was preparing an attack, Dwyer suddenly ordered a hyper beam attack. To counter it, Diantha gave out an identical command. What ended up happening was they both launched hyper beams at the same time, and thus were both unable to dodge each other's attacks, resulting in a double knock out.

From there, Dwyer laughed hysterically and pointed rudely at Diantha. "Just hurry up and pick Gardevoir already, typical predictable one-note trainer!" He didn't even wait for her to choose, and he sent out his last pick: Conkeldurr. Diantha was greatly irritated by Dwyer's antics, but this display of confidence managed to push her anger to another level. How was he so sure of victory by choosing Conkeldurr, a fighting type? Her Gardevoir could easily beat a fighting type with her psychic powers. It was as if Dwyer knew he had no chance of winning, so he was now committing to ruin Diantha's victory. In that moment, she wanted to show the world she didn't need Gardevoir to beat this punk…so instead she picked Gourgeist. The jack-o-lantern pokémon was a ghost and grass mix, and thus fighting attacks had no effect on him. Diantha was sure she had the edge, and she ordered Gourgeist to launch a psychic attack right away. The blast showered Conkeldurr with psychic energy…but it had no effect.

There were gasps from the audience, and no one could figure out what was wrong. Dwyer had a sinister look on his face, and he issued his next command. "Use dark pulse," he said. Diantha stared in total confusion as Conkeldurr suddenly ran forward with impossible speed, as his appearance transformed into his true form: Zoroark. Dwyer had the sneaky dark type fox pokémon Zoroark in his team all this time, though he'd kept it a secret the entire tournament…up until now. His trap had worked perfectly, and Diantha's Gourgeist was up against a major disadvantage now. It was enough for Zoroark to unload on special dark attacks, and he scored the final knockout over Gourgeist, who was utterly helpless. Dwyer had defeated Diantha and a symphony of boos erupted from the crowd. Dwyer laughed viciously and relentlessly, while Diantha covered her face with both hands in shock and devastation. She couldn't understand how she'd fallen for such a trap, and it was overwhelming to think about it. All she could do was slowly make her way from the field and try to make sense of the disaster.

That put the inevitable rematch between Holden and Dwyer as the winner's finals for the tournament.

There were only two more matches going to be held today: Lance versus Steven Stone and Diantha versus Iris. Lance didn't lose a step, even after the defeat against Holden, and took the victory over Steven Stone 3-1. Though Diantha was still not fully over her loss to Dwyer, she came out on top against Iris 3-2, though it wasn't a very clean victory and she used Gardevoir to win in the end. That was the end of the day's battles, which left Diantha to battle Lance tomorrow, where the winner would face the loser of Holden versus Dwyer.

Though the festival had resumed, Holden spent some time with Habs and Tito, praising them for their good runs. There had been many matches today, but what mattered now were the finals taking place tomorrow, which would also end the tournament. Habs and Tito ended up joining Holden and his students at the festival, where everyone managed to have fun in spite of all the drama.

Later on in the evening, Holden went looking for Diantha. She was inside one of the buildings, spending time alone, quietly pondering everything. Holden managed to find her thanks to Professor Oak, and he announced his presence by knocking on the wall nearby. "Mind if I speak to you?" he asked.

"Holden…" Diantha stammered, fighting back tears. "He _beat_ me. I lost…to _him_. How could I let that happen?"

"He's more dangerous than we all realized," Holden said. He walked closer and placed a gentle hand on Diantha's left shoulder, hoping to reassure her that losing to Dwyer was no embarrassment. "You're still in the tournament, and you can still get revenge against him. I'm sending him to you after I beat him."

Diantha couldn't resist a faint smile. "You better, Holden. You _better_."

For once, the two of them were in full agreement on something. "I'll make him eat all those words," Holden said with determination. After that, he came forward and gave Diantha a hug, and he almost couldn't believe himself. His former rival had become a friend, and he was actually rooting for her inside. Diantha was as surprised at Holden's friendship as he was, but she felt restored from it in this dark moment of her life. They both had come to terms with each other, but now there was one simple thing they shared without any hesitation: they both wanted to see Dwyer lose.


	14. Chapter 44

CHAPTER 44.

With the festival coming to a close, the last day was mainly just to crown the next champion. After that, the activities would end earlier this time, giving the staff necessary time to begin cleaning everything up. The event was a huge one, and it would take time to close it all down.

One person who was definitely eager to reach the end was Holden. His journey to this point had been eventful, but it was hard to truly enjoy the good at the moment. His mind was worn out from having to focus so much on battling the past four days, and it made him begin to wonder if he still had it in him to keep this up. After this tournament was over, perhaps he would need to take a step down. The thought of going through all of this once again next year was overwhelming.

Once again, Holden turned to his pokémon. He released all six of them so they could all meditate. Sometimes, this was necessary to keep it together when the pressure became extremely taxing. So long as Holden stayed on top of his problems, he wouldn't drown in the sea of stress. But no matter what, he had to keep swimming. Then he remembered what he'd told Kelly, when he used the mountain metaphor to illustrate the journey ahead. The most important thing he told her was to _keep climbing_. That's what he had to do, even if he was unhappy and worn out from time to time. This was what he loved to do, and he knew it. He would keep climbing, and he would reach the apex of this tournament.

Scizor eventually broke meditation and walked over to Holden, where he gave him a nudge. It was time to get to the battle arena, and Scizor knew it. Once he reminded Holden, his trainer nodded and leapt to his feet. It was time, and they were all ready to perform at their absolute best.

The crowds were all cheering with massive volume, especially when the announcer confirmed the contest was ready to begin. Up first would be Holden versus Dwyer, vying for winner's finals, and the victor would reach top 2. Of course, this was the most advantageous spot for both of them, and the winner would have a greater amount of time to rest their team until the grand finals went down.

When Dwyer and Holden approached each other, Dwyer was wearing a blue hat with Apex Academy logo on it, but with a bright yellow X painted over it. As soon as Holden saw it, he grinded his teeth and glared with hatred at his opponent. Dwyer laughed and noticed the exact moment Holden discovered the insult. "Don't worry, Holden. I'll send you back to your students as quickly as possible."

Despite his anger, Holden was strong enough to keep his cool. Patience was always his greatest strength, and he tapped into it once again. Even so, no man was a greater test of patience than this one. "When this is over, I'm taking that hat off your head," said Holden. The words were calmly spoken, but his eyes inflicted intimidation, and surprisingly, Dwyer had no response to it. Instead, he turned and made his way back to his position, before his reluctance to engage in more verbal jousting became more noticeable. Holden figured it made sense that Dwyer liked to be the bully. It would help knowing this so that he could potentially use it to his advantage.

Last year, Holden had outwitted Dwyer with his team, but it wouldn't be so simple this time. Dwyer had previously won by having his team charge in aggressively with vicious attacks, but this year he had been careful enough to effectively counter his opponents much more, especially against Diantha. His greatest trick had been concealing Zoroark until his battle with her, where he manipulated the former National Champion to make a bad final pick, giving him the victory. Holden had to be on the lookout for these moves, or else he'd be the next victim of Dwyer's ploys.

To start the battle off, Holden went with Scizor, and Dwyer chose Dragonite. Scizor was prepared to face this foe, but Dragonite was still a very rare pokémon, so this was actually an opponent Holden's team seldom encountered in battle. That being said, Holden had instructed Scizor on how to handle the situation. Sure enough, Scizor used double team and spread out around the field, attempting to surround Dragonite. However, Dwyer countered by sending Dragonite charging forward, hoping to blitz Scizor and pressure him into revealing his true position. This was the exact same tactic Holden had used with his Kangaskhan over Dwyer's Scizor a year ago, and now the rude trainer was taking the strategy and putting it to use. Fortunately for Holden, he had predicted Dwyer would do just this, and so Scizor had a response to this move as well. Scizor quickly abandoned the double team and leapt directly above Dragonite, then came crashing down with bullet punches. Dwyer was angry right away, and shouted to his Dragonite to abort the blitz and cover up. It was no use though, and Dragonite suffered some serious hits in the process. Finally, Scizor used iron head to land the knockout blow. One down and Holden was off to a good start.

Dwyer shook his head irritably, but didn't spend too much time dwelling on the setback. His next pick was Conkeldurr. One thing that was well known about Holden's team was that they were weak to fighting types, with only Alakazam holding a major type advantage on his team. This was likely a ploy to encourage Holden to pick Alakazam for his second choice, so he would have to be smarter. First of all, he kept Scizor on the field and let his signature pokémon dish out more bug attacks. Conkeldurr took a few hits, but powered through them and landed his ground attacks: bulldoze and stomping tantrum. The ground attacks forced Scizor to take big leaps above his opponent, but that slowed him down considerably compared to his ground speed, and Conkeldurr swung his pillars out to swat at him, until he finally landed a hit that finished him off. Scizor was down, and now Dwyer had evened things up.

Holden debated sending out Alakazam next. If he did send out his psychic pokémon, he'd likely defeat Conkeldurr very easily. However, Dwyer seemed to want things to go that way, and Holden suspected Zoroark would be the third pick and have an easy win over Alakazam, since dark types were immune to psychic moves. Thanks to this logic, Holden chose Venusaur instead, and decided to take his chances since Venusaur greatly resisted all of Conkeldurr's fighting attacks. Dwyer twitched his mouth when he saw Holden's choice but he mostly kept his thoughts hidden. Conkeldurr moved in to dish out heavy blows anyway, but Venusaur used his vines to keep his foe at bay, while he dished out leech side and spores to drain him. Dwyer was actually telling Conkeldurr to attack rapidly, sensing he had little time to actually do damage before he succumbed to the plant techniques. Venusaur was a powerful grinder, and Holden had relied on his starter's abilities for many years, and this time was no different. However, Conkeldurr still hit Venusaur with multiple attacks such as rock slide, stone edge, and dynamic punch. The last move actually left Venusaur in a state of confusion, and Dwyer took advantage. He recalled Conkeldurr quickly and replaced him with Gengar, who quickly attacked with shadow ball at the still confused Venusaur and scored the knockout.

Holden nearly lost his cool as Dwyer successfully pulled a fast one on him. Though Dwyer was now left with one final pick, he'd cleverly taken out Venusaur earlier than he would have if he'd taken his time to let the plant pokémon clear up from the confusion. Holden had to make his final pick now, and it would have to face Gengar. Snorlax was the obvious pick, since he was a tank and was immune to ghost type attacks. Knowing that Gengar was capable of hypnosis and confuse ray, moves that would keep Snorlax disoriented, Holden had instructed Snorlax to launch attacks at Gengar to keep him from having time to issue those moves. Therefore, Snorlax would use zen headbutt to land a super effective psychic attack against Gengar, who was part poison type. Eventually, Gengar sent out dark pulse, and Snorlax took a hit. However, that was acceptable, since Snorlax also knew the move psychic. They traded blows, and then Gengar fell from the hit. It appeared to be over, and Holden watched eagerly, only to make a startling discovery.

Gengar transformed into Zoroark, revealing he'd been an illusion the entire time, even going so far as to pretend to collapse from the hits while being a dark type, while he was actually immune to psychic attacks. This trick bought Zoroark a lot of time, since Snorlax had focused on psychic moves thinking they would have been super effective, when in reality they were completely ineffective. Not only that, Zoroark had been powering up with agility and nasty plot, and was at a high level of power now. Snorlax was strong and durable, but he'd unknowingly granted Zoroark a lot of time to prepare himself. Knowing now that he wasn't up against a ghost type, Snorlax fired hyper beam, hoping to catch his foe right off the bat, but Zoroark was fast enough to avoid the strike, and he came in with night daze. After connecting, Zoroark moved on, dodged Snorlax's body slam, and then countered with another night daze. This was a signature move of Zoroark, and it was powered up by the nasty plots, while also lowering Snorlax's accuracy in the process. The result was looking grim for Snorlax, who took more and more damage. Finally, Snorlax had to use rest, and fell asleep while also healing the damage sustained. Snorlax attacked with snore, a move that worked in his sleep, but the hits only did minor damage to Zoroark. This was an effective move, but Zoroark had a strategy surrounding this situation as well. Dwyer instructed Zoroark to use nasty plot a few more times, and then unleashed focus blast, which was a special fighting type attack he'd been taught, and it was fully powered up thanks to the nasty plots. The move struck Snorlax in a tremendous burst of energy, and the audience gasped in shock. Holden stared in bewilderment, hoping that Snorlax could endure the move. He was still asleep, and so Holden could only stand and hope he would wake up and still have some energy to keep fighting. However, after a long and tense period of time, it became clear than Snorlax wasn't merely asleep: he was unconscious. Dwyer had won the battle, and for the first time in two years, Holden had lost a battle.

The cheers turned into boos and the crowd voiced their displeasure at the end result. Holden stood and stared, shocked at what he'd just witnessed. As much as he despised Dwyer, this trainer had used incredible battle techniques to outwit and overpower his competition, and now Holden realized just how strong a trainer Dwyer truly was. That didn't make him feel any better about the loss, though Holden walked toward Dwyer when it was over, prepared to shake his hand anyway. Dwyer was leaping and punching the air, celebrating his big victory, but he stopped when he saw Holden approaching. For a few moments, they both stared at each other, unflinching, and it was unclear as to what would occur next. Finally, after several tense moments, Holden reached his right hand out and seized the hat from on top of Dwyer's head. Dwyer didn't react, even as Holden took the hat away, just like he said he would.

Then, as painful as it was, Holden willed himself to extend his hand to shake Dwyer's. It wasn't easy, especially after the way Dwyer had mocked his academy, but with his students all watching, Holden needed to show class. Once his hand was out, Dwyer looked down at it, and almost appeared moved by the display. However, ultimately he laughed and patted Holden on the shoulder mockingly. "Keep the hat. I'm fine with the championship." With that said he turned back around and raised his arms in the air, yelling wildly to celebrate, while the audience mostly gave him boos in return. Holden sighed and made his exit from the field. He would have to come back from this loss.

Up next was Diantha versus Lance, and the winner would face Holden. The only time these two had battled on the big stage was five years ago, when Lance had beaten her to win the National Championship. This was the big rematch between two of the greatest trainers to ever live. The battle began with Dragonite versus Gardevoir, and both of them used mega stones too. It was Mega Gardevoir versus Mega Dragonite, and the two had plenty of fireworks as they dueled. In the end, Mega Gardevoir got the job done thanks to her big type advantage. After that, she knocked out Lance's Hydreigon, leaving him with only one final pick. He went with Salamence, and Diantha withdrew Mega Gardevoir and chose Aurorus next. Even after Gardevoir had been on a roll, it seemed as though she'd switched merely to let Lance save some face, rather than have his entire team lose to Mega Gardevoir. Lance's Salamence was victorious against Aurorus after a decent fight, and that left Diantha with one final pick. Finally, Diantha used Hawlucha and won the battle with one of the fighting bird pokémon's signature flying press attacks. With her victory, Lance ending up taking 4th place for the tournament.

Before their battle began, Holden and Diantha went to shake hands. She held Holden's hand as she looked him in the eyes. "Regardless of whoever wins between you and me, we have to make sure we beat that pig." Holden smiled and chuckled as he nodded in agreement. This was the first time these two would be battling without being enemies, and it was a different feeling. With that said, neither of them intended on going easy on each other.

Diantha started off with Gardevoir, and Holden started out with Venusaur. He hadn't expected her to lead off with her trump card, so he knew she would likely take a strong lead. She used the mega stone on Gardevoir, and the mega pokémon unleashed psychic attacks at Venusaur. The grass pokémon was also part poison, making him very vulnerable. Before suffering a defeat, Venusaur rapidly unleashed his spores at Gardevoir, making sure to stun her as much as possible before getting knocked out cold from the psychic attacks. Holden sent out Scizor next, and went Mega Scizor to take on Mega Gardevoir. This time, the battle was fairly even, as Mega Gardevoir had to move rapidly to avoid Mega Scizor's constant attacks, while also countering with fairy moves along the way. Eventually, she hit Scizor with confusion, which managed to leave him confused as a side effect. This gave Gardevoir enough time to land a moonblast, which was powerful even with Scizor's steel armor to resist it. Finally, Scizor couldn't endure anymore, and he went down. Holden sent out Lapras as his final pick, and he used confuse ray quickly. This kept Mega Gardevoir confused long enough for Lapras to launch blizzard, and he did some serious damage. Diantha had to consider conserving her Mega Gardevoir for the rematch against Dwyer, so she called her back. It would be difficult for her to counter Holden's Lapras, since he could attack with water, ice, and even electric moves. With two pokémon still to choose, Diantha decided to go with Hawlucha first, who could do some heavy damage with his fighting attacks. Hawlucha flew directly above Lapras, making it difficult for Lapras to look up at him to launch ice beams. Fortunately, Lapras had other plans in mind. She used surf, but not as an attack, but actually as a means to move with increased speed across the field to get a better vantage point against her opponent. Diantha ordered Hawlucha to dive in for a flying press, hoping to catch Lapras with her back turned, but then suddenly Lapras used the surf wave to spin around and fire an ice beam with surprising speed. It connected, and Hawlucha was unable to stay airborne with his wings covered in frost. Once he fell to the ground, Lapras blasted him with thunderbolt as well, and that finished him off. Though she was disappointed in Hawlucha's complete lack of effectiveness, Diantha determined the best pick on her team now was Gourgeist. Gourgeist had a signature move called trick-or-treat, which added ghost type to Lapras, and made her more vulnerable to ghost attacks. Gourgeist also launched leech seed, and began draining health from the tank water pokémon. Since Lapras was a tank of health, the leech seed was absorbing plenty of energy. Lapras launched ice beam, but Gourgeist survived the hit and healed up most of the damage from the leech seed. Lapras fired another blast, and Gourgeist was barely conscious. Unfortunately, he used pain split after that, and evened out the health between Lapras and himself. With all of Lapras's health points, that was a very significant technique. Sensing the tide was beginning to turn, Lapras prepared to launch blizzard, which would hopefully be enough to land the knockout, but Gourgeist used solar beam at the same time. Both pokémon were hit at the same time from the attacks, and they both went down together. The audience was silent for a few moments, trying to see if the battle was actually over, which would mean a draw. However, there was a glowing green light from the leech seed, which pumped one more dose of healing to Gourgeist, and it was enough for Diantha's pokémon to rise again and claim the victory. The battle was over, and Holden had placed 3rd in the tournament. It was official: there would be a new champion this year.

After an amazing battle, Holden was noticeably disappointed in his failure, but he couldn't help but be classy with Diantha. They shook hands and were talking to each other about the amazing nature of their battle just now, and what was once a heated rivalry was now a visible friendship. They received tons of applause for their efforts, and the fans loved them. In that moment, Holden couldn't see any failure in his efforts, and felt victorious anyway.

Before they walked away, Holden moved close to Diantha's ear to give her some advice. "Listen to me. You must save Gardevoir for the right time. Don't use her in the first set. Reset the bracket, and use her in the second set." Diantha looked at Holden with some confusion, as if she hadn't expected him to ever give her specific advice. She had warmed up to him, but her pride was still very strong, and she was reluctant to accept advice, even from Holden. He seemed to notice the skepticism in her eyes, and he talked some more. "Dwyer's going to do everything he can to get you to use Gardevoir early, so you can't give him what he wants." Finally, Diantha nodded, and Holden felt as though he'd gotten through to her. He wanted her to beat Dwyer just as much as she wanted to herself, so there was no reason for him to lie.

It was time for the grand finals, and the audience was watching with great anticipation. For this contest, it would be 3 versus 3 as always, but if Dwyer won a single match, he would be the next champion. In order to win, Diantha had to beat Dwyer twice, which was no small feat. Neither of them was willing to shake hands, so they just made their first picks and got into position.

The battle began with Diantha's Hawlucha and Dwyer's Conkeldurr. It was a battle of fighting types, but Hawlucha had the edge with his flying techniques to go along with his fighting moves. After trading blows, Hawlucha scored the first knockout of the series. Before sending out his second pick, Dwyer laughed and began his routine bombardment of verbal attacks. "You look so cute when you're trying hard to win. Man, this is gonna suck for you when you fail." Diantha felt her heart beating furiously as her blood was boiling. She couldn't wait to shut this man up. Dwyer's second pick was Slaking, who hung back and wasn't moving. Diantha knew that Slaking could only attack slowly, so she decided to send Hawlucha charging in to land a high jump kick before Slaking could land an attack. Unfortunately, she had misjudged the time, and Dwyer's Slaking actually fired a hyper beam just as Hawlucha flew up close, knocking him out instantly. Not letting the setback slow her down, Diantha chose Gourgeist next. Back again after a heated battle earlier in the day, Gourgeist picked right back up where he left off, hitting Slaking with leech seed. He was absorbing health from a safe distance, and then he also began to use seed bomb to do damage. Since that wasn't doing much damage to Slaking, Gourgeist used growth to power up his special attack. Dwyer ordered Slaking to use rest, which would heal him up, so Diantha commanded Gourgeist to use worry seed, a move that would prevent Slaking from sleeping, and thus prevented the healing too. However, Dwyer didn't seem to mind, and he commanded Slaking to use amnesia, which powered up his special defense. Next, he shouted the words, "Hyper beam faster!" Diantha realized that hyper beam would have no effect on her Gourgeist, since he was a ghost type, so she sent him in to attack with solar beam to take advantage of Dwyer's mistake. However, instead of hyper beam, Slaking shocked everyone by using punishment, which was a dark type attack. It was also a move that was stronger if Slaking's opponent had used stat boosting moves, and Gourgeist had used growth numerous times. Thanks to this tactic, Dwyer once again seized the edge, and knocked out Gourgeist with his unexpected sneak attack.

Diantha was down to one more pick, and now her nerves were high. Dwyer was pointing at her and laughing, trying to get a rise out of her so she made a mistake. She couldn't afford to lose this set, and there was no more time to risk. Surely, her Gardevoir would be strong enough to knock out his Slaking and whoever else he picked last, with enough energy to spare for the battle after. Holden had warned her not to choose Gardevoir, but she finally decided to disregard his advice. Out came Gardevoir, and Dwyer shouted in joy, as if he'd greatly hoped for that pick. Diantha couldn't understand his joy, and she wanted to make him regret it. She used the mega stone, and Mega Gardevoir quickly finished off Slaking. For his last pick, Dwyer sent out Dragonite, and Mega Gardevoir prepared to wipe him out. However, when she launched her moon blast, it struck Dragonite, transforming him into Zoroark, his true form. Though the pokémon wasn't out cold, Dwyer called him back and the battle was over. Diantha had reset the bracket.

Despite Diantha's victory, Dwyer was laughing as if he hadn't even lost. She was confused by it, and somehow she was compelled to turn to see Holden's reaction. He was standing off to the side and looked concerned. There was something they all knew that she didn't. Dwyer walked back to the ref, and Diantha went over there as well. "Pick your starters," the ref said. At the count of three, Dwyer announced Scizor, while Diantha declared Gardevoir. However, the ref shook his head. "Tournament rules state that in grand finals, you may not use a pokémon once it has been recalled."

As soon as she heard that, Diantha finally lost her cool. "What? What are you talking about? It's a _new_ battle!"

Dwyer was cackling with delight, while the referee could only shake his head. "For grand finals, both trainers must use three different pokémon if the match extends to two battles. You may not use any of the three pokémon from your previous battle, and neither can your opponent."

"That's _not_ a rule!" insisted Diantha. She spoke so loudly that her voice cracked as she said it. This was the first time a double elimination tournament had ever taken place in the National Championship, and so this was the first time this situation had ever arisen.

Unlike his opponent, Dwyer was in good spirits. "I scared you, girly. You panicked and now you don't get to use Gardevoir again. That was my plan from the start, you know. I'm surprised you didn't see it sooner. I thought you were a National Champion. Guess you've been getting lucky all these years."

"Shut it!" Diantha ordered as she began losing herself in the confusion.

By now, the officials were rushing out to the field, along with Eliot Golding and Tohro Yamaguchi. The referee filled the officials in on the situation, and Eliot nodded his head, though he clearly looked sad to have to agree. "I'm sorry, Miss Diantha, but the rules for the tournament are clear. You cannot use a pokémon in the same match once you called it back."

"But it's a new set!" she argued, and she certainly made a good point. "We start a new match, that's three versus three, and I can pick my pokémon again."

Tohro looked even sadder than Eliot, but Eliot couldn't let it be. "I'm sorry, but rules are rules. That's the way this format works. It's the only situation where the rule is like this because it is grand finals. The combatant in the winner's position has the advantage of winning in one battle, but if he loses the first match, the second is seen as a continuation. Therefore, the commission made this a rule, and we have to stand by it. It would be unfair to change the rule now during the tournament." Diantha was stomping the ground, furious at the verdict.

Hoping to reach some sort of solution, Tohro had an idea. "If Dwyer agrees to letting it slide, could we merely permit it? If both combatants are okay with it, then would it not be fair?"

Eliot sighed, and wanted to agree to that. "It would be putting unfair pressure on the opponent to accept the trade, putting himself at a disadvantage."

Overhearing the debate, Dwyer laughed some more and put himself in the mix. "Don't worry about the pressure, because I'll _never_ agree to that request. It's the rules, fair and square, and it's her fault for not knowing them. Now, let's finish this thing already!"

Not even waiting to hear anymore, Diantha left to return to her spot for the match. Not only was she going to be denied the chance to use Gardevoir in the most important battle of her life, she also was being penalized for making an invalid first pick. To rub salt in the wounds, Dwyer was also seizing the foul, so he could counterpick her new first choice. The commission had no choice but to honor the rules, though they were disgusted by how low in class Dwyer was acting.

Before he left the field, Eliot walked over to Dwyer. "If you don't stop with the bad conduct, you'll be disqualified from the tournament. _Keep it civil_."

The threat simply didn't work on Dwyer. "You can't disqualify me. You'd have a riot out here. Don't you worry, though, cause I have nothing else to say. I'm about to win this championship now, so that's all that matters." Eliot sighed irritably and made his exit after that.

Diantha had used up Hawlucha, Gourgeist, and Gardevoir, while Dwyer had used up Conkeldurr, Slaking, and Zoroark. To start the final battle of the tournament, Diantha had to go with Goodra, so Dwyer was able to counter with Dragonite. At the very least, Dragonite was vulnerable to dragon attacks just as much as Goodra was, so it wasn't so bad for her. The battle began, and both dragons wrestled and fought up close, hoping to prevent the other from unloading with the heavy dragon attacks that were long range. Eventually, though, the two separated, and their trainers called out those heavy moves. It was now that Dragonite's advantage was revealed, since he could fly and dodge the majority of Goodra's techniques. Diantha had been wise enough to teach Goodra ice beam, so she had a special weapon against other dragons. It did some damage to Dragonite, knocking him out of the sky to the ground below. Goodra fired a second blast, but Dwyer quickly recalled Dragonite, getting him out of harm's way. Dwyer followed that up with Scizor, who surprisingly hung back to power himself up, rather than trying to finish off the weakened foe. Diantha continued to encourage Goodra to keep fighting, hoping to at least do some damage before the inevitable defeat in this duel, but Dwyer's Scizor was content to hang back and power up while dodging. Finally, Scizor was at max power, and Diantha's stubbornness with Goodra ended up backfiring. Scizor landed one metal claw to knock out Goodra, and Diantha now had a fully-powered Scizor facing her.

Diantha needed to put a stop to it, so she sent out Tyrantrum next. Though he was a fierce beast, Tyrantrum knew the move charm, which began to lower Scizor's attack stat. Unfortunately, taking the time to worry about that tactic came back to haunt her, since Dwyer sent Scizor in quickly with iron head. He landed a critical blow right on Tyrantrum's skull from the air and got an instant knock out. It was a terrible turn of events for Diantha.

The maniacal laughter from Dwyer began to seal Diantha's fate, but she refused to give up. Her last pick was Aurorus, who had to work hard to win the battle by herself now. She used thunder wave to paralyze Scizor, which succeeded in slowing him down significantly since it cut his speed in half. Next, she commanded Aurorus to use reflect and light screen to provide her with extra defense. This would help Aurorus last through the next two foes in order to reach the victory. Dwyer sent Scizor in to attack anyway, and his obedient bug pokémon burst through the shields and began to pound away with steel attacks. He delivered some considerable damage, and made no effort to defend when Aurorus used blizzard to knock him out.

It all came down to Dwyer's final pick: Gengar. Aurorus had a bunch of defensive abilities in play, but Gengar used toxic, and now Aurorus was very severely poisoned. With time against her, Diantha commanded Aurorus to switch to the offensive, disregarding her shields and firing her special attacks. This played into Gengar's strengths, as he used confuse ray to disorient Aurorus and keep her unable to focus. She hurt herself more than anything, and the poison was growing more and more consuming. With things getting bad, Aurorus used rest, which healed her but put her to sleep. This rescued her from the toxic poison, but Gengar went after his foe with ghost attacks now. He used nightmare, which began to drain health from Aurorus while she was asleep, and dream eater which did the same while also transferring the health to Gengar. Finally, Aurorus woke up, but she was very weak now, while Gengar was at full strength. Diantha knew time was short, and she wanted to have Aurorus rest again, but instead she felt she could score a knockout if she landed just one big attack. With that in mind, Diantha sent Aurorus forward, launching ancient power, rockslide, and blizzard in a constant stream of attacks. Gengar took a couple of hits, and was actually badly wounded. Unfortunately, the onslaught clouded vision on the field, and Aurorus couldn't see at all. Gengar, on the other hand, was able to see through the fog, and he launched a shadow ball, which connected. Aurorus was dazed and nearly fell over, but she maintained her footing. Diantha breathed in relief, but then a second shadow ball came flying and struck Aurorus, and that did it. Gengar was victorious, and that meant Dwyer was the next National Champion.

"Yes!" Dwyer exclaimed, and he leapt in joy and celebrated his victory. Diantha collapsed to her knees in disbelief, and felt her eyes water up in devastation. She had failed, and it had all been because she had committed serious errors. Her eyes found Holden, who looked just as disappointed as she was. The crowd shouted both cheers and boos, as the thrilling battles finally revealed the next National Champion. Love him or hate him, no one could deny that Dwyer had made a huge impact.

Throughout the deafening noise from the crowd, Holden was suddenly next to Diantha. He reached down for her hand and helped her back to her feet. When she looked into his eyes, he was sad for her, but also proud. "You fought great," he congratulated her. "You deserve to be proud. No matter what he says, you have earned the right to be proud."

Somehow, Holden's bold words removed her tears, and she nodded. They shook hands and both walked out to the field together, where Dwyer was still celebrating to everyone's dismay. Lance joined them all on the field as well. Eliot and Tohro made their approach, along with the trophies and medals for the top four participants in the biggest pokémon tournament ever held.

Dwyer was the next National Champion, and things would never be the same again.

THE END


End file.
